Report: Honda Engineers Berated Takata Before Scandal Erupted
Bloomberg ( via Automotive News) reported that engineers at Honda demanded to know why Takata airbags were injuring drivers and passengers during a 2009 meeting held four months before investigators started their inquiry.
“Why does it explode? I want to know the truth,” an engineer identified as “Otaka” asked Takata’s CEO at the meeting, according to Bloomberg.
Minutes from a July 2009 meeting between Honda executives and Takata officials were made public as part of a lawsuit against the airbag maker.
Federal regulators Wednesday identified the ninth fatality linked to the defective airbags, which could burst so violently that they could spray metal shards into the passenger cabin. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials said the victim was a minor driving a 2001 Honda Accord near Pittsburgh in July, according to USA Today.
The teen was hospitalized and died several days after the crash, according to investigators.
Honda was Takata’s largest customer and owned 1.2 percent of the auto supplier when investigators began examining the defective airbags, according to Bloomberg.
In 2009, when the companies met outside Los Angeles, engineers at Honda accused Takata officials of being too slow to act and not treating the situation seriously.
The documents were unsealed as part of a Florida woman’s lawsuit against Takata and show that, as far back as 2005, engineers at Takata notified the company of falsified data and the company’s illegal practices.
According to the report, a Takata engineer named Bob Schubert wrote that the company was “prettying up” data about its airbags and that the company was lying about testing: “It has come to my attention that the practice has gone beyond all reasonable bounds and likely constitutes fraud,” he wrote in 2005, according to Bloomberg.
Honda, along with 11 other automakers, are recalling more than 19 million cars — with more than 23 million faulty inflators — in one of the largest recalls in history. NHTSA officials in November fined Takata more than $70 million, which could rise to $200 million if the company can’t fulfill its obligations.
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Is there any data on how this problem has affected the resale value of affected vehicles, particularly Hondas? The Honda Kool-Aid runs strong with many consumers, so I worry that unsuspecting buyers are picking up used Hondas without asking questions. It's not like your local used car lot (or your Honda dealer, for that matter) really cares about the recall status of that vehicle on the four-square. Even my son's used Sonata - purchased at the Hyundai dealer which serviced it since new - was sold with 4 outstanding recalls. I went somewhere closer to have them dealt with. None of his recalls were this important.
Really, at this point the story is more about Honda than Takata. Takata is toast; they have no chance at survival at this point. I mean, if you were at an automaker specifying parts, would YOU touch Takata with a 10-foot pole? It has yet to be determined how much they'll owe in fines, lawsuits, and in payments to automakers, but I expect by this point that eventual number will be way more money than they can collect from their customer base. Their gloomy financial future will deter even MORE customers... on and on into the death spiral. Now Honda? They'll survive this just fine, but it remains to be seen how much all this is going to cost them. When their supplier is gone, they'll be nobody else left to blame (or pay.) This isn't necessarily fair to Honda, as the blame certainly should be shared, but life isn't fair.