World News – UA – Over 90,000 cars still on the road ahead of Takata deadline

The auto industry is in a race against time to replace 107,000 potentially fatal Takata airbags in more than 90,000 vehicles still on Australian roads

Motorists who refuse to have their car repaired for free risk having their registration canceled And car manufacturers face heavy fines for vehicles not counted by the December 31 deadline

More than half of Takata’s exceptional airbags are found in cars in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, the three cities representing 46,000 vehicles yet to be repaired The remaining airbags are distributed throughout the country

Faulty devices can explode with lethal force and spray shrapnel when deployed in an accident, and they deteriorate and become more volatile over time

Australia’s leading consumer watchdog had set a deadline for all airbags to be rectified or counted – and most national authorities have agreed to ban the renewal of registration or transfer of ownership of cars who did not have the airbags replaced

Some automakers have hired private investigators and chartered planes to reach remote areas – including the small islands in the Torres Strait – because it is too expensive or too logistically difficult for people to bring in. vehicles to service centers or ship them to the mainland

Reminder warning letters have been issued repeatedly, in up to 18 different languages, begging owners of 90,898 cars to take the matter seriously and pointing out that the replacement airbag and the job associated reminders are free

Car manufacturers who fail to report every defective airbag, however, face fines; The ACCC has not yet specified what these penalties will cost

Defective Takata airbags have been directly attributed to at least two road fatalities in Australia and numerous serious injuries

According to the latest quarterly data as of September 30, some car brands have only a handful of vehicles on the road, while others, like Nissan, have up to 19,000 cars awaiting repair

Auto industry says much of the data is out of date and the actual number of airbags in circulation is much lower

Industry says it wants to replace or accommodate airbags on all recalled cars by Dec. 31, but insists it « won’t turn its back » on anyone with a car after this date

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Joshua Dowling has been an automotive writer for 20 years, mostly with The Sydney Morning Herald He has the appetite for supercars but is also a closet fan of small hatchbacks and big cars He has driven before a Nissan Micra in Bathurst instead of an Audi R8 and a Ford Ranger in Taree instead of a Range Rover Vogue And a Smart ForTwo from Sydney to Perth – and survived

Airbag, Takata Corporation, Australia