Honda coughs out $605m to settle airbag claims

Japanese automaker Honda has agreed to a $605 million settlement to pay for buyers’ claims related to deadly Takata airbags in the US.

The money Honda set aside will go towards paying for all the out-of-pocket costs and lost wages customers might have incurred from having to get their Takata airbag-equipped cars repaired.

According to Financial Times, part of that amount will also be used to create an outreach program designed to speed up the pace of the recall as well as the replacement of recalled parts.

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If the court approves the amount Honda is offering to pay, it’ll be the biggest among all Takata-related settlements. Toyota, Subaru, Mazda and Subaru agreed to settle for a total of $553 earlier this year, while Nissan settled a class-action lawsuit for $97.7 million.

It only makes sense, though, since Honda is Takata’s biggest customer: among the 18 deaths related to the the company’s rupture-prone airbags, 17 happened in Honda vehicles.

Takata has been in hot water for years, since its airbags have the tendency to explode violently and shoot out hot metal shrapnels inside vehicles.