Faulty Airbags Force Fiat Chrysler Recall of 1.9 Million Vehicles
This time, it’s Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ turn to recall a million-plus vehicles for airbags that might not deploy during a crash.
Yesterday, the automaker announced the recall of 1.9 million vehicles worldwide to fix a defect linked to three deaths and five injuries.
According to Reuters, the defect is “similar but not identical to” the defect behind the recall of 3.64 million General Motors vehicles earlier this week.
FCA says the vehicles’ airbags and seatbelt pretensioners could fail during a crash. Like the GM case, FCA says the failures occur in specific crashes, but won’t say what kind of collision. At the heart of the issue is a faulty control module and front impact sensor wiring.
The faulty equipment was installed in certain 2010 to 2014 Chrysler Sebring/200, Dodge Caliber, Avenger, Jeep Patriot and Compass vehicles. Most of the affected vehicles — 1.4 million — were sold in the U.S.
As FCA grapples with its recall, it isn’t alone. Very few automakers have escaped the slew of airbag malfunctions and associated recalls. Besides GM’s massive effort, the National Highway Transportation Administration is investigating potentially deadly ARC Automotive airbags installed in some Hyundai, Kia, FCA and GM vehicles. Multiple automakers are in the process of recalling up to 100 million vehicles fitted with explosive Takata airbags.
It’s not just in the owners’ best interests for FCA to get this recall right. Last year, the NHTSA fined the company $105 million for botching an earlier recall of 11 million vehicles.
More by Steph Willems
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What weird quirk allows both these nanufacturers recalls to maintain secrecy with regard to the conditions under which thier safety systems fail to perform? There would almost have to be some greater good intetest, as if being rear ended and pushed into something didn't allow deployment, and there was feat that unscrupulous people might use the information to kill for profit. That's a reach, someone give me a simpler explanation so I can Occam this out of my head.
With the frequency of the airbags being deployed, I've always felt this was some sort of a conspiracy.
And in other recall news around airbags, GM is fighting against having to recall one-million GMT900 vehicles equipped with Takata airbags because they want to do a study to see if it is necessary. As reprehensible as VW, Mitsubishi and Toyota's practice of building new vehicles with Takata airbags already on the recall list into 2017. Recall the flippin' things.
With all of the "million vehicle" airbag recalls being announced/already in place, how and when will production of NEW non-faulty airbags ever catch up? I'm still waiting for parts for the one in my Honda!