Ford Motor Co. is heeding a request by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and expanding its recall of vehicles with Takata airbags, reported MLive.
Ford said Thursday the recall now encompasses 502,489 vehicles. The expansion adds 447,310 to Ford's initial recall.
The recall affects 2005-2008 Ford Mustang vehicles built Aug. 18, 2004 to June 25, 2007 at Ford's Flat Rock Assembly Plant and 2005-2006 Ford GT vehicles built Feb. 11, 2005 to Jan. 30, 2006 at the Dearborn automaker's Wixom Assembly Plant.
Ford said it is aware of about 462,911 vehicles in the U.S. and its territories, 27,516 in Canada and 7,578 in Mexico affected by the recall.
About 4,484 additional vehicles outside of North America are also included.
The company said it is aware of only one injury related to the potentially faulty airbags supplied by Takata.
The driver-side airbags are part of a much larger recall by Takata Corp. that has been linked to five deaths and has included more than 20 million recalled vehicles worldwide. It spans 10 automakers.
In humid environments, some of the defective airbags' inflators have ruptured and exploded, sending metal shards flying through the car.
Takata's own U.S. recall has so far included Florida, Puerto Rico, limited areas near the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana, as well as Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, Virgin Islands and Hawaii.
The Japanese supplier has so far resisted calls by NHTSA and lawmakers on Capitol Hill to expand the recall nationwide, insisting that its data and testing show such a move is unnecessary.
The Tokyo-based supplier has its North American headquarters in Auburn Hills.
Takata CEO and chairman Shigehisa Takada has bought space in U.S. and German newspapers to tell the public it is doing everything it can to fix a massive recall of its airbags.
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