Massive Airbag Recall Gets More Massive

The airbag situation is bad. The government bungling might be worse:

The U.S. auto safety agency today dramatically boosted, to at least 7.78 million, the number of U.S. vehicles previously recalled for faulty Takata air bags that the government now says pose an immediate threat to front-seat passengers.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration, in what qualifies as very strong language for the agency, says it’s telling owners “with urgency” to get their recalled cars fixed at once as a matter “essential to personal safety.”

Adding to confusion over the warning, however, is a changing count of vehicles and owners in jeopardy. The Wednesday tally was a corrected count, down from 8.47 million that NHTSA’s total showed late yesterday. And that, in turn, had been an update of the 4.74 million units NHTSA cited overnight Tuesday.

We have one car that might be on this list, so we’re hoping to get a straight answer.