FCAI’s Takata website passes six million checks
BY JUSTIN HILLIARD | 8th Feb 2019
The Australian automotive industry’s peak body, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), has this week confirmed that more than six million vehicles have been checked for potentially deadly Takata airbags on its dedicated website.
Of these vehicles checked, more than 915,000 were found to have Takata airbags that had yet to be replaced free-of-charge at a preferred local dealership.
As reported, when visiting www.IsMyAirbagSafe.com.au, owners simply enter their vehicle’s registration number and state or territory before almost instantly being advised whether or not a Takata airbag replacement is required.
“This is an excellent response to a major public safety campaign. We passed the six-million inquiry mark at the weekend,” FCAI chief executive officer Tony Weber said.
“There has been an average of more than 32,000 vehicle checks made every day since the website was launched six months ago.”
Mr Weber added that while significant progress has been made, the FCAI’s “members will not rest until they have completed the whole job”.
“They are doing everything they can to reach out to owners of affected vehicles – every working day, they are writing, telephoning, emailing and door-knocking,” he said.
As of December 31, 2018, 2,805,856 of the 3,818,799 Takata airbags affected by the federal government’s ongoing mandatory recall had been replaced for a completion rate of 73.5 per cent.
Critically, 7816 ‘alpha’ Takata airbags still required replacement, posing a greater risk of rupturing upon deployment and causing metal fragments to be shot into a vehicle’s cabin.
The remaining 1,005,127 Takata airbags were the ‘beta’ type that is less dangerous but still possibly lethal.
Of the Takata airbags requiring action, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) determined about a fifth were unreplaceable due to some vehicles being “classified by manufacturers as written off, scrapped, unregistered for more than two consecutive years, exported, stolen or modified.”
In December last year, 91,000 vehicles had their Takata airbags replaced with third-party parts – 30 per cent less than the monthly replacement peak of 130,000 in September 2017.
Among the implicated manufacturers, Mazda had the best completion rate, at 92.7 per cent, ahead of Honda (89.6%) and Mitsubishi (86.7%).
Holden had the most vehicles requiring Takata airbag replacements, at 232,682, while Toyota (108,428) and Nissan (94,519) had less work ahead of them, in second and third place respectively.
Takata airbags have resulted in 24 deaths and more than 300 injuries being reported globally, including one of each in Australia two years ago.
Vehicle owners looking for more information on the compulsory recall can text the word “Takata” to 0487 AIRBAG (0487 247 224) or visit the www.IsMyAirbagSafe.com.au website.
