Honda has expanded its recall of thousands of its cars for faulty airbags, it has been reported.

With fellow Japanese manufacturer Toyota currently in the process of recalling more than eight million cars and light trucks following the discovery of faulty accelerator pedals, Honda is now stepping up its own recall efforts.

Specifically, the latest expansion of its recall includes more than 375,000 cars within the United States, as well as thousands in Canada and Japan, and an unspecified, yet smaller number in other markets, including Australia.

While Honda has known about its faulty car parts, which related to its airbags, for some time, automotive industry observers believe that Toyota’s troubles have prompted other manufacturers to err on the side of caution.

"With Toyota’s big problems, Honda realised it couldn’t avoid a recall in these other models," Toshirou Yoshinaga, an analyst at Aizawa Securities in Tokyo, told the Associated Press.

"Given all the negative publicity surrounding Toyota, they probably thought they just needed to step out and do a recall."

This comes as Honda has predicted that it will enjoy a ten per cent growth in sales in the Chinese market over the course of 2010.

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