Mazda expands Takata airbag recall to 66,000 vehicles in Canada

Mazda is recalling 66,000 vehicles in Canada to fix Takata airbags that can explode and injure passengers and drivers.

On Friday, it issued a formal recall for nearly 503,000 cars and another 35,000 pickup trucks in the U.S. and Canada.

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Some of the vehicles were previously subject to a voluntary safety improvement campaign announced on Dec. 11, 2014, and are now covered by a formal recall, Mazda said in an online statement.

The affected cars are:

• 2003-2008 Mazda 6.
• 2006-2007 MazdaSpeed 6.
• 2004-2008 RX-8.
• 2004-2006 B-Series pickup.

About 1.5 million vehicles in Canada have been recalled because of Takata airbags, which have inflators that can deteriorate and deploy with too much force, injuring people in the vehicle.

The federal government has proposed legislation that would give the transport minister new powers to order auto manufacturers to recall vehicles.

The General Motors ignition switch defect and the Takata airbag fault, which covered millions of vehicles, have focused attention on how little power Transport Canada has. It is unable to order recalls and must wait for automakers to act.

Meanwhile the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a series of reports recommending it rely less on industry information.

Administrator Mark Rosekind says the GM case changed the culture at NHTSA, where staff did not have the technology skills to determine there was an underlying problem with GM vehicles. He says actions now being put in place will hold automakers accountable for safety issues.