Questions surrounding air bag safety recall still unanswered

WASHINGTON (KTRK) -- Car manufacturers are slammed with calls about the newly expanded recall involving Takata airbags.

Toyota has 877,000 vehicles on the list. A spokesperson tells us they sent letters to drivers whose vehicles were a part of the original recall of Takata airbags last year. This week, they're re-issuing those letters and focusing on states with high humidity, including Texas.

Honda is by far the automaker with the most vehicles on the list, with five million.

Hal Maloy bought a 2004 Honda Accord in August. When he started noticing that his airbag light coming on sporadically, he says he took it to the dealer.

"...But they told me in order to get the light off, that was a diagnostic check and there would be a $90 fee for doing that," Maloy says. "They would replace the part. By the way, they didn't have the part."

He drove home and called Honda of America. They told him he'd get a letter to take back to the dealership whenever the part came in, and that it would be covered.

"I just felt that they were trying to get some kind of compensation for replacing the airbag," he tells us.

The government is warning 7.8 million car owners that inflator mechanisms in the air bags can rupture, causing metal fragments to fly out when the bags deploy. Along with the five million cars made by Honda are on the recall list, hundreds of thousands more are there that were made by Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, GM, Mazda, Mitsubishi, and Subaru.

Toyota is re-routing parts to the target high-humidity areas mainly in the south.

"There have been so many recalls recently that consumers, maybe have stopped paying attention," says Robert B. Johnson. "What's the problem with that? Now we have a recall that could cause death or serious injury."

Robert B. Johnson, with the University of Houston Center for Consumer Law, says drivesr should call the dealer asap.

"Everything should be covered for free by the dealership," he says.

"Surprisingly, I can't believe they're letting people drive their cars around with that kind of liability. Hopefully that's not going to happen to me," adds Maloy.

If your car is on the list, even if you don't have a letter from the manufacturer, you're encouraged to go to the dealership anyway.

Check out the list below to see if your car has been recalled.

Car owners can see if their vehicle is affected by going to NHTSA's Safercar.gov website.

BMW: 627,615 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2000 - 2005 3 Series Sedan

2000 - 2006 3 Series Coupe

2000 - 2005 3 Series Sports Wagon

2000 - 2006 3 Series Convertible

2001 - 2006 M3 Coupe

2001 - 2006 M3 Convertible

Chrysler: 371,309 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2003 - 2008 Dodge Ram 1500

2005 - 2008 Dodge Ram 2500

2006 - 2008 Dodge Ram 3500

2006 - 2008 Dodge Ram 4500

2008 - Dodge Ram 5500

2005 - 2008 Dodge Durango

2005 - 2008 Dodge Dakota

2005 - 2008 Chrysler 300

2007 - 2008 Chrysler Aspen

Ford: 58,669 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2004 - Ranger

2005 - 2006 GT

2005 - 2007 Mustang

General Motors: undetermined total number of potentially affected vehicles
2003 - 2005 Pontiac Vibe

2005 - Saab 9-2X

Honda: 5,051,364 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2001 - 2007 Honda Accord

2001 - 2005 Honda Civic

2002 - 2006 Honda CR-V

2003 - 2011 Honda Element

2002 - 2004 Honda Odyssey

2003 - 2007 Honda Pilot

2006 - Honda Ridgeline

2003 - 2006 Acura MDX

2002 - 2003 Acura TL/CL

2005 - Acura RL

Mazda: 64,872 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2003 - 2007 Mazda6

2006 - 2007 MazdaSpeed6

2004 - 2008 Mazda RX-8

2004 - 2005 MPV

2004 - B-Series Truck

Mitsubishi: 11,985 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2004 - 2005 Lancer

2006 - 2007 Raider

Nissan: 694,626 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2001 - 2003 Nissan Maxima

2001 - 2004 Nissan Pathfinder

2002 - 2004 Nissan Sentra

2001 - 2004 Infiniti I30/I35

2002 - 2003 Infiniti QX4

2003 - 2005 Infiniti FX35/FX45

Subaru: 17,516 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2003 - 2005 Baja

2003 - 2005 Legacy

2003 - 2005 Outback

2003 - 2005 Baja

2004 - 2005 Impreza

Toyota: 877,000 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2002 - 2005 Lexus SC

2002 - 2005 Toyota Corolla

2003 - 2005 Toyota Corolla Matrix

2002 - 2005 Toyota Sequoia

2003 - 2005 Toyota Tundra

The Associated Press contributed to this report.