Automakers Are Still Selling Vehicles With Potentially Deadly Airbags
Defective airbags linked to at least 10 U.S. deaths are still rolling off dealer lots, despite a massive safety recall.
Four automakers admit to selling new vehicles equipped with faulty Takata airbags, but it’s all legal as long as those cars are fixed within two years. The companies were revealed in a report tabled today by U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Democrats.
Airbags in certain vehicles being sold by Toyota, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen don’t contain a chemical drying agent — a key ingredient that stops the ammonium nitrate inflators from becoming unstable.
Prolonged exposure to heat and humidity causes the propellant to burn faster, creating an explosion instead of a controlled expansion of gas.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Transportation launched a multi-phase recall of 35 to 40 million Takata airbags. A total of 28.8 million units were recalled between the discovery of the fault last year and the Justice Department’s announcement.
It’s no fun knowing you’re sitting in front of an airbag that can spray metal shrapnel into your face, but that risk only develops over time. Because of this, the oldest affected vehicles are first in line to be fixed in this recall.
News of the airbag sales comes on the same day Ford expanded its vehicle recall to 1.9 million vehicles. Last week, Honda, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Ferrari, and Mitsubishi announced the recall of over 12 million vehicles.
Japan’s transport ministry also got in on the action, recalling a further seven million vehicles.
[Sources: Associated Press, Reuters]
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Still waiting on my Legacy's airbag and melty dashboard to be replaced. I was told June last month. I called the day I got the letter in January. My coworker's been in a rental Ram because of his Ridgeline for going on 2 months now. I'm still waiting to hear that the OEMs were made aware of the issue years ago and helped cover it up because they knew what would happen to their sales (during the biggest sales boom in a generation) if they made it public.
Considering the danger, it seems 'no bag" is better than a defective bag. So why aren't people having the defective ones removed until safe ones are available? Just make believe it's 1966 again, but with lap and shoulder belts, and drive more carefully.
It's fine and dandy that the cars keep getting recalled, but is anything being done to fix the cars? I've been looking at last gen mustangs and 3 serieses and I've had to walk from half a dozen that were priced very well. The recall hadn't been done and there are no parts to do the recall, or at least that's what the dealerships and sellers have been telling me.
"It’s no fun knowing you’re sitting in front of an airbag that can spray metal shrapnel into your face, but that risk only develops over time. Because of this, the oldest affected vehicles are first in line to be fixed in this recall." So basically, these airbags that are being sold work fine today. It's only after a few years that they turn deadly. Therefore, not really an issue as long as they get fixed before the time is up... Of course, I would not want to buy one and am glad to see Mazda is not on the list (having just purchased a mazda3). I have a solution for all the old cars with deadly airbags though. These should all be turned into LeMons racers. Or just race cars. Because you don't need airbags in a race car ;-)