Most would fall around 1 from our experience.
3 Likes
I received a new letter from Toyota today saying that there is the possibility that my replacement airbag inflator was installed incorrectly! I am to take my car back and have it checked and reinstalled if necessary! Unbelievable!
7 Likes
My number still stands at 1 and proof keeps piling in unfortunately.
3 Likes
Still more !!!
How have car companies not worked all this out yet? 
no conspiracy there I bet …
4 Likes
7000 more Toyotas …
SAAB …
https://www.productsafety.gov.au/recall/gm-holden-ltd-saab-9-3-and-saab-9-5-my-2006-2011
Jeep/Chrysler from a week or so ago …
4 Likes
My skepticism of the car manufacturers has not yet risen above the 1 rating. How long does it take to find out you used Takata airbags in manufacture of vehicles. Are their ordering and stock systems so chaotic that they can’t even determine what they purchased?
So did they know if they fitted bearings and wheels to their cars? Do they even know that they did to make a car? By the signs of this current Takata issue you would be hard pressed to answer in the affirmative.
5 Likes
It looks like they are realising that the low recall rate is due to many people not knowing about the racall, or what vehicles are affected. This is a small step in the right direction.
Maybe working with State Government’s would be another step. State governments could share vehicle registration details with car manufacturers to ensure that individual car owners are also personally advised of the recall affecting the vehicle they own.
4 Likes
They do liaise with State Govts to find the owners of affected vehicles. That is how we were originally identified as the new owners of our Honda. This has been ongoing for about 4 to 5 years. The problem has been the poor identification of the vehicles that do have the airbags in them. The mandatory recall has forced car manufacturers to actually look deeper into their records to identify the cars rather than just do cursory examinations.
Ford just recently released a pdf list of about 1,200 pages of just VIN numbers of affected vehicles, why has it taken to just now?
The Ford vehicles impacted in Australia are:
Econovan (2004-2005) – approx. 1300 vehicles
Courier (2004-2006) – approx. 21000 vehicles
Ranger (2006-2011) – approx. 69500 vehicles
Mondeo (2007-2009) – approx. 9500 vehicles
Mondeo (2015-2017) – approx. 6500 vehicles
The scary part is they were still fitting these bags long after they had been identified as an issue and worse still after the voluntary recall had started some years ago.
5 Likes
I wasn’t aware this was happening.
4 Likes
NT Police have the answer … as always … lets ‘educate’ then turn it into a cash cow, for all the right reasons of course …
(apparently the vehicles have failed to respond … not sure my cars read recall notices …)
Northern Territory Police will begin targeting vehicles that have failed to respond the compulsory recall of Takata airbags.
Senior Sergeant Michael Ordelman from Territory Major Crash Investigations said motorists driving vehicles in the top end that still have these airbags fitted are gambling with their lives.
“Vehicles that have been exposed to hot and humid conditions are at an increased risk of an inflator rupture.
“Drivers and passengers involved in even minor crashes have been seriously injured and killed around the world due to these airbags.
“The Australian Government initiated a compulsory recall on 28 February this year that requires all suppliers of vehicles with defective Takata airbags to have them replaced.
“This replacement is free of charge for all vehicles that have these faulty airbags,” Senior Sergeant Ordelman said.
Nationally there are approximately 2.2 million vehicles that have not complied with the recall.
The number in the NT is estimated to be in excess of 10,000 vehicles.
NT Police will begin a targeted campaign warning drivers if their vehicle is subject to a recall.
“Following the education campaign we will be defecting these vehicles off the road. Manufacturers can assist if you are having trouble complying with the recall so there is no excuse not to get it done.
“It takes a few hours to replace the airbags, NT Police have seen what can happen when a faulty airbag deploys and we do not wish to see it again.”
If you are unsure about your vehicle you can check here
4 Likes
Normally I am the first to rail against the nanny state but in this instance I totally agree with their actions. As they are trying to protect the Territory’s citizens but also because the state, meaning us taxpayers will have to pick up the tab for injuries that faulty airbags may cause just because some drivers are too lazy or reluctant to have them replaced for Free.
3 Likes
I agree the government should be doing something, but punitive action against road users who conceivably either aren’t aware of the problem at all or don’t understand it (it’s just a recall?) or who bothered to check when the first news came out but haven’t checked in the myriad of updates that added new VIN ranges, additional brands, additional models, or people who have been told they do need to replace but somehow it’s OK to wait a considerable period of time for the replacement parts - with the old defective bag still in operation? doesn’t sound like hypocrisy at all - and weren’t some vehicles deemed OK then not? or was that some airbags replaced then found to still be faulty - might have my (airbag) wires crossed (or maybe that information wasn’t released widely). To run an ‘awareness campaign’ is one thing, but how effective will it be? what about people who don’t read newspapers or watch television - and particularly in the NT where the Berrimah line is alive and well, so much so the Chief Minister who was born and bred in the Alice is struggling to acknowledge Katherine is even part of what he cares about …
One of my 5 vehicles has airbags - I’ve probably checked it against ‘the list’ a half dozen times, it comes up clean every time, while vehicles very similar get hits. I fully expect the manufacturer to fess up to my vehicle at some stage, when they budget for the next round or someone on golf course says they can’t keep it quiet - with precisely no accountability for why it took them so long (as has been the case so far with all the updates). I’m sure as you say there are lazy and apathetic people, but I don’t believe they are in significant numbers.
Maybe they could get the police who sit outside bottle shops here in the NT to hand out flyers …
Yes something needs to be done …
As for picking up the tab - maybe the car companies should be doing this? along with paying for the so-called education campaigns - that would seem fair.
3 Likes
If a vehicle is affected by a recall which are only done for safety related matters, the manufacturer has an obligation to make all reasonable attempts including using address information from the registration authorities to notify affected customers that their vehicle is affected. So affected people have had in most cases more than one attempt to get them to come into a dealer and have the recall addressed but clearly some haven’t bothered or are not interested in getting it fixed, so I have no problem with the police defecting their cars.
2 Likes
… some … and I’d suggest there are also plenty of cases where that process has failed the current owner. Probably the majority of cases, but of course there’s no evidence to show what the proportions are, that’s just my view.
3 Likes
Sorry not really true
It took over 3 years for us to get an appointment for replacement. To make matters worse we had rung many times and were told it will be a little longer and not to worry…our car had the type 1 in it.
It has also been estimated it will take at least until 2020 for the bags to be replaced and then they will need to start on the ones where they replaced Takata with Takata. This gave them around a 6 year breathing space on some vehicles which isn’t accurate depending on temps and humidity and could be much shorter. So a car could be off the road for at least 2 years before it is fixed. Plus we are just now being notified of more vehicles that are added to the list. Ford now admit they fitted defective ones in vehicles in 2017…come on…the car companies just don’t really care, all they want is the next sale.
Then we have this added ‘we will warn the car owners and then fine them’ attitude. It is just like a huge easy target cash grab. So the car owners get warned, they ring up, the company says wait it won’t be long and we currently don’t have parts and it will be ok to drive for a bit longer, the car owners say ok then drive out on the road and get fined. Then they don’t drive the car until it is fixed in perhaps 2 years time (if they get lucky).
I say just fine the car companies for every car they don’t fix in a timely manner which should be no more than about 2 weeks after they know one has a defective airbag installed. I am sure we would see more action on replacing them if that is the action taken. Do I care how much it might cost the car companies, no not at all, they fitted them until last year and so they deserve every cost it imposes on them to fix it.
Edit: “fitted defective ones in vehicles in 2017” should now be 2018 with new listings showing some new cars fitted with these airbags in 2018 models. Not Good Enough.
5 Likes
16 May 2018 and another 1.1 million cars added to the Takata airbag recall. The Roll of affected cars just becomes bigger and bigger, and some of the brands affected are not just the asian or normal “Australian” eg Holden or Ford household ones. More BMW & Mercedes among other brands starting to appear in more numbers with some Motorcycles also now included.
Please don’t just hope you are OK and check the updated ACCC list at:
If your car has the Alpha type take get it fixed now, don’t wait. Please read this 2017 ACCC release about them:
Not all models are on the Recall list now, there is also a “Future Recall” list of cars that will be subject to the recall in the future…my mind boggles at this kind of statement ie your car is affected but we won’t issue a recall until a date in the future. Some of these recalls are for when a Takata has been replaced with a Takata as supplies were short ie “Like for Like” replacement. Anyway to see if your car will be subject to the future recall see:
@abby You may need to check again if your car is affected, many more have been now added to the list as manufacturers are more active in their listing of cars. Though the Integra does not appear on the ACCC listings at the moment.
If you own an Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover, Range Rover, Skoda, Citroen, Ferrari, McLaren, Subaru, Tesla Model S, and Volkswagen (VW) and many more including Ford, Fiat Chrysler, BMW, Nissan, GM Holden, and Mercedes including Vans checking the Future Recall list may be very worthwhile.
7 Likes
I also received a letter from Toyota. So I rang them to say that my Toyota Rukus had already been done, to which the reply from Toyota was “But we need to check it.” We made an appointment and when I went to them the office guy told me that they had to check it to make sure the airbag had not been put in upside down! They are allowing unqualified staff to work on our cars! This whole drawn out comedy has prepared me for the next car I purchase. Even now I don’t feel secure driving my car again! PS: With the first stopover with Toyota a worker pinched my Disability Permit! The workers are not only unqualified in their jobs but also not trustworthy!
6 Likes
A big problem I see is the number of vehicles needing their bags replaced and the manufacturers do not who owns them, or if in fact they are still driven or in a wrecking yard. The owners may not be interested in the hassles of following up so they just sit like a ticking time bomb. The only source I see is the State Gov rego databases, and that would require State Govs to forget privacy rules, and just provide names and addresses to manufacturers affected. State Govs could do the owner contacting, but I suspect that the cars involved probably would have changed hands numerous times before the owners were contacted.
2 Likes
First, an income opportunity for government. They would normally be keen on that. Secondly since rego is annual at worst, it would identify every related vehicle on the road with a worst case lapse in ownership of 1-year. Perhaps not perfect but far better than the status quo, or so think I.
2 Likes
