The largest recall in automotive history continues to make headlines. Launched in 2018, the global recall of over 70 million vehicles equipped with Takata airbags is still causing problems, and even claiming victims. Yet, in Canada, over 40 percent of affected vehicles have still not been repaired, according to Transport Canada.
Background
A brief historical recap: in 2018, the Takata company, the world's largest supplier of airbags, had to recall over 100 million of its products installed in vehicles from nearly every brand. The cause: a defect in the inflator.
That inflator, designed to deploy the airbag in milliseconds to protect occupants, could potentially explode without reason when exposed to heat, projecting metal shrapnel in the process. Although no major incidents have been recorded in Canada, several deaths have been reported worldwide due to the malfunction.
Older cars
It’s important to note that no recent-vintage vehicles are affected. The recall affects cars built between 2002 and 2015 in Canada (and as late as 2017 in Europe).
However, many of those vehicles are still on our roads. In France, notably, a defective Takata airbag was blamed for the death of a motorist at the wheel of her Citroën last June.
That tragic incident forced French authorities to address the issue and the number of at-risk cars still in circulation. Some 800,000 vehicles that had not yet been repaired were immobilized, meaning they could no longer be used on the road.
Some service centres have even forbidden their technicians from repairing certain vehicles on which the recall has not been certified as complete.
Over 40 percent
In Canada, according to Transport Canada data, 7,913,994 vehicles were affected by one or other of the 142 recalls issued since the problem was discovered. To date, approximately 3,200,768 of them are considered unrepaired.
“The number of unrepaired vehicles reported as still being in circulation in Canada is likely highly overestimated. This is because automakers rely solely on the last known registration information, whereas many of these vehicles may have been scrapped and/or recycled (i.e., sold for parts),” explained Sau Sau Liu, a communications advisor at Transport Canada, in an email to Auto123.
Administrative follow-up
It’s disconcerting that so many unrepaired vehicles are still in circulation despite the recall. Transport Canada conducts administrative follow-up with manufacturers, but the problem is that many affected vehicles also come from the U.S. market, which requires a different tracking process.
As a reminder, vehicle owners can easily confirm whether or not theirs is affected by any recall in Canada. “Transport Canada maintains the Motor Vehicle Safety Recall Database, which allows users to check if their vehicle is subject to a recall,” concludes Ms. Liu.