The Takata airbag recall, first triggered by isolated inflator failures in the mid-2000s and formalized into the sweeping federal action that followed, remains open today — roughly 17 years after it began. It is still the largest and most complex safety recall in U.S. history, according to NHTSA’s own Takata Recall Spotlight, and it has been linked to at least 28 confirmed deaths in the United States and hundreds of injuries.

Key Points

• Roughly 67 million Takata airbag inflators have been recalled in the U.S. alone, part of more than 100 million recalled worldwide, per NHTSA.
• At least 28 people in the U.S. have died and more than 400 have been injured when the inflators ruptured, sending metal fragments into the cabin, according to NHTSA’s own recall data.
• More than 5 million vehicles nationwide still have not been repaired, according to CARFAX data reported by Carrier Management, with Texas, California and Florida holding the largest concentrations.
• Takata filed for bankruptcy in 2017 under the weight of recall costs and was acquired by what is now Joyson Safety Systems, but remediation continued under the new ownership.
• As recently as February 2026, Stellantis issued a “do not drive” warning for roughly 225,000 vehicles still carrying unrepaired inflators, according to Fox Business’s coverage of that warning.

What’s Affected

Vehicles from roughly 19 different automakers were built with the defective ammonium-nitrate-based inflators, including Honda, Ford, Toyota, BMW, and Stellantis brands like Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep, spanning model years that stretch across much of the 2000s and into the early 2010s. The defect is worst in hot, humid climates, where prolonged heat exposure degrades the propellant and raises the odds that even a minor crash triggers an inflator to rupture instead of deploying normally.

What Owners Should Do

Owners can check whether their vehicle is affected using the VIN lookup tool on NHTSA’s Takata Recall Spotlight page, and repairs are performed free of charge by dealerships regardless of the vehicle’s age or ownership history. Stellantis and other automakers have specifically warned owners of certain affected vehicles not to drive them at all, even short distances, until the inflator is replaced, given how forcefully these units can fail.

Seventeen years is a long time for a safety recall to remain open, and the fact that a major automaker was still issuing “do not drive” orders in February of this year shows the crisis hasn’t fully closed out even as the bulk of the fleet has been repaired. The deaths tied to this defect are a sober reminder of why federal regulators keep pushing dealerships to finish repairs on the millions of vehicles still out there.