More than 500,000 Takata airbags still faulty across Australia

Motorists in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and other states are driving cars that are potential death traps with faulty Takata airbags. SEE IF YOUR CAR IS AFFECTED

Hundreds of thousands of Australian motorists are driving dangerously with shocking figures revealing the number of vehicles across the country still carrying faulty Takata airbags.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says rural and regional communities, as well as those from culturally diverse background are falling behind in the recall process.

Faulty Takata airbag inflators have reportedly lead to the deaths of 24 people worldwide, and more than 300 injuries have been associated with them.

The ACCC’s latest data shows 3.21 million Takata airbags have now been replaced in 2.28 million Australian vehicles in what is the world’s largest automotive recall. But there are still 536,000 needing to be rectified.

According to recent numbers on the consumer watchdog’s Product Safety website, NSW now has the highest number of faulty airbags, with 187,352 in need of replacement.

More than 928,000 have already been attended to across the state.

Victoria was only marginally behind with 186,835 airbags that required urgent attention after car dealers in the state had replaced 761,717 of them.

In Queensland, 88,268 dangerous airbags needed to be changed, with almost 638,000 already replaced.

And in South Australia, 39,422 of the faulty Takata devices are still around and more than 188,000 have been exchanged.

In Tasmania, 13,755 airbags still need replacing after 71,096 of the faulty bags have been removed.

In WA, 45,984 need replacing after 323,752 were fixed.

In the ACT, 11,589 airbags still need attention as 59,692 have been replaced.

In the Northern Territory, 20,140 airbags have been replaced but 3721 airbags are still faulty.

A piece of metal schrapnel from a defective Takata airbag. Picture: AFP

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Brands hit by the Takata airbag recall include Mitsubishi, Honda, BMW, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Ferrari, Fiat Chrysler, Audi, Citroen, Ford Australia, GM Holden, Jaguar Land Rover, Jeep, Volswagen, Tesla, Skoda, Mercedes Benz and McLaren.

The news comes as the Herald Sun reported in February that Victoria has not matched states such as Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia where governments are moving to cancel registrations and licences for those who do not replace them.

Carmakers told News Corp Australia today they have reported a big jump in compliance rates in the past two months.

Mazda, Honda, Citroen and Mitsubishi have all completed more than 90 per cent of their replacements, while Subaru, Toyota, Ford and Nissan are above 80 per cent.

But Mitsubishi spokesperson Karl Gehling said the job was getting significantly harder as the carmakers approach full compliance.

“We are up to something like a dozen letters sent to some of those people.

“If they haven’t responded now, it isn’t necessarily going to change.”

Holden, which was in the second wave of recalls, is at 74 per cent completion.

Spokesperson Daniel Cotterill said the company had struck supply problems due to the global demand for replacements.

“Other replacement airbags required design, development and validation which delayed recall commencement for some vehicles,” he said.

But he said all its recalls were now in full swing.

Subaru spokesperson David Rowley said the company’s completion rate was 85 per cent.

He said the company had used multiple forms of communication to contact owners.

“This ranges from door-knocking those who have ignored multiple previous communications; letters, emails, texts.”

Volkswagen, one of the second wave of recalls, has completed 65 per cent, which is already ahead of its agreed end-of-2019 target.

The company had “full supply of components”.

Nissan is at 75 per cent compliance, having rectified 223,374 vehicles.

Spokeswoman Karla Leach says the company is finding it extremely difficult to get through to some owners.

“Despite delivering more than 20 separate communications to owners with an outstanding recall notice, vehicles are not being presented for airbag replacement,” she said.

She said all states needed to block registrations for outstanding vehicles with the more dangerous Alpha airbags.

“All state governments - and the ACCC - need to move much faster on expanding this to all affected Takata vehicles where the owners have not presented their vehicle despite our extensive efforts to contact them. We believe this will provide strong incentive to prevent affected Takata vehicles from driving on our roads, and get them replaced,” she said.

Mercedes-Benz’s compliance percentage is the lowest of all the affected makers at 57 per cent, but spokesman Ryan Lewis said the brand was “on track to complete the recall in accordance with the requirements of the compulsory recall notice”.

“Our recall process is significantly ahead of the Quarterly Completion Schedule, as agreed with the ACCC, for both passenger cars and vans,” he said.

Lewis said Mercedes was not exchanging airbags with like-for-like replacements, so the new airbags will not need to be replaced at a later date.

The maker has no “alpha” bags.

Toyota, which has the largest number of affected “alpha” airbags, is at 83 per cent compliance, although some vehicles will have to have their replacement airbags replaced at a later date.

The largest automotive recall in history centres around the defective Takata Corp. air bags that are found in millions of vehicles. Picture: AFP

Spokeswoman Emily Hasseloff said: “To immediately secure safety in the face of parts supply challenges globally, some vehicles affected by the active Takata recall campaigns have been remedied by replacing affected Takata airbag inflators with ‘like for like’ Takata non-desiccated airbag inflators, which will require replacement again in the future.”

The brand has resorted to face-to-face contact with owners of affected cars, especially those with alpha airbags.

“In the case of the most serious (‘alpha’) defects, owners are requested to immediately stop driving the vehicle and contact a Dealer to organise towing (free of charge) to have the airbag inflator replaced.”

ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said they were calling on all drivers potentially affected by the airbag recall to be vigilant and check their cars.

“We’re urging all consumers, especially those from regional and rural areas and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, to check if their vehicle is affected, and help spread the word to their family and friends,” she said.

“We also encourage children whose parents may not have strong written English skills, to help their parents check to make sure their car is not under recall.”

The safety devices were found to degrade in such a way that in the event of a collision, a metal canister could explode with too much force.

This could cause metal fragments to shoot out, potentially injuring or killing vehicle occupants.

Check if your car is affected on the ACCC’s product safety website’s official recall list.

Originally published as More than 500,000 Takata airbags still faulty across Australia