DETROIT (Reuters) - Subaru of America is recalling 8,557 older model cars in the United States equipped with potentially defective air bag inflators made by Japan's Takata Corp <7312.T>, the automaker and U.S. safety regulators said on Tuesday.
Subaru joins seven automakers that last month recalled vehicles in some high-humidity regions at the request of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
While there is no official estimate of the number of vehicles that may be affected by the Takata air bag issue, U.S. safety regulators have estimated they could number more than 1 million.
Subaru did not limit it recall to mainly southern U.S. states, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as most of the other automakers did. Subaru cars affected are the 2003 and 2004 Legacy, Outback and Baja models as well as 2004 Impreza.
A Subaru spokesman said the company, a unit of Fuji Heavy Industries (T:7270), was not aware of any crashes, injuries or deaths related to the recall issue.
Last week, Honda Motor Co (T:7267) expanded its recall of vehicles with Takata air bag inflators to include California.
A ninth automaker may be impacted by the Takata air bag inflator issue. In late June, Mitsubishi Motors Corp (T:7211) was mentioned along with Subaru as a possible candidate for the recall that NHTSA initially said had affected seven automakers.
(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Tom Brown)