Honda has said it would recall another 440,000 cars around the world for faulty airbags as rival Toyota faced further investigations over its largest-ever safety crisis.
Honda, Japan's second-largest car maker, said the faulty airbags had been linked to one death and 11 injuries in the United States, but no accidents elsewhere.
While such recalls are not uncommon and the size of Honda's is not massive, it comes at a sensitive time for the industry.
Car makers are struggling to draw customers back to showrooms after a brutal downturn during the financial crisis, and Toyota, the world's largest carmaker, is facing a storm of criticism over safety issues and its response to them.
In the latest of a string of embarrassing product problems for Toyota, US regulators said they are reviewing dozens of complaints about potential steering problems in newer Toyota Corollas.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is discussing the matter with Toyota to see if a formal investigation is warranted, a standard procedure when reviewing complaints.
Toyota expanded its largest ever recall yesterday, including more than 400,000 of its latest version Prius and other new hybrid models due to braking problems. It also recalled more than 7,300 late model Camrys in the United States for an unrelated braking problem.
That comes on top of some 8.1 million vehicles recalled for problems with slipping floormats and sticking accelerator pedals that have been linked to crashes that killed at least 19 people.
A US congressional committee postponed a hearing scheduled for today to examine the recalls and Toyota's response due to a snowstorm expected to hit Washington.
Toyota president Akio Toyoda has said he may travel to the United States next week to tackle criticism that his company moved too slowly on earlier recalls.
Toyota faces potential litigation over the crashes linked to the problem of unintended acceleration as well as class-action lawsuits over the brake problems with the Prius.
Honda's move comes on top of a recall first announced in November 2008 for 4,200 Accord and Civic sedans due to faulty airbag inflators, and expanded last June to cover an additional 510,000 vehicles globally.
Reuters