TORONTO — Honda is recalling tens of thousands of vehicles in Canada to fix a problem with the ignition in what has been a recall-plagued year for the industry.
The Japanese automaker will recall 44,000 vehicles in Canada and hundreds of thousands more in the U.S. to fix a problem that could allow the ignition key to be removed when the vehicle is not in “park,” the company said Monday.
This isn’t the first time Honda has had to recall vehicles over problems with the ignition interlock system and follows on the heels of quality issues at Toyota that caused millions of vehicles to be recalled worldwide.
Honda Canada spokesman Richard Jacobs said there have been no reported complaints about the problem in Canada, but the company said there were “several” complaints south of the border.
The problem occurs when the ignition’s interlock system is damaged or worn during use, which could allow the ignition key to be removed when the vehicle’s shift stick isn’t in the “park” position. This could allow the vehicle to roll and potentially crash.
The recall in Canada affects about 18,000 Honda Accords, 21,000 Honda Civics and 2,000 Acura 1.7ELs from the 2003 model year, and about 3,000 Honda Elements from the 2003 and 2004 model years.