Fears of an airbag design that may explode have sparked a massive recall of Hondas, Nissans and Mazdas – amounting to over three million cars worldwide.

The defective Takata airbags had also been fitted to some cars built by Toyota; the Japanese car giant had to recall 2.27 million cars as a result last year.

Toyota has been investigating a fire that may have been caused by a Takata airbag, as well as a crash in Puerto Rico that caused an "abnormal passenger side airbag deployment."

Among the cars subject to the most recent recall are nearly two million Hondas built between 2002 and 2005; no accidents however have been reported in relation to these cars.

More than 45,000 Hondas in the UK are thought to be affected, along with 1.02 million in North American and 669,000 in the firm's home country, Japan.

Honda already recalled over a million vehicles last year due to Takata airbag problems.

Models affected this time include the Accord, Civic, Element, Fit, Jazz and Stream.

755,000 Nissans have also been recalled, including X-trail, Cube and Infiniti models built between 2001 and 2003.

In the UK, 4,500 Atenza and RX-8 (2002-2004) models are affected – and 160,000 globally.

As many of our breakdown vehicle recovery customers will be aware, it's important to heed any recall notices from your manufacturer as soon as possible to rectify any problem.

By Craig Hindmarsh