Filed under: Recalls, Safety, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota
Since
Takata has decided not to take the lead concerning potential issues with its airbag inflators, the automakers have. Perhaps that's unsurprising, since it's the automakers, not Takata, that will take a beating on the dealership floor if consumers decide its models are a health hazards.
The Detroit News reports that
Toyota,
Honda,
General Motors,
Ford,
Chrysler,
Mazda,
BMW,
Nissan,
Mitsubishi and
Subaru met in a hotel conference room near the Detroit Metropolitan Airport last week to sort out a way to understand the technical issues involved.
So far, faulty airbag inflators have been ruled the cause of five deaths and 50 injuries around the world, but neither Takata nor investigators understands exactly why the inflators are malfunctioning. The
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently asked Takata
to issue a national recall,
Takata declined, citing a minuscule failure rate and the fact that it's still investigating the issue. Toyota and Honda then made
an industry-wide appeal for "a coordinated, comprehensive testing program" that would pinpoint the problem inflators and get them replaced, and that's what the Detroit meeting was about.
Numerous issues, however, will make this a long row to hoe: simply getting the parts to replace the nearly 20 million inflators in cars recalled around the world so far - even
working with other suppliers -
will take a years, but more importantly, no one knows if the replacement inflators currently being installed will suffer the same issue. Answers will hopefully come quickly with Takata, the ten automakers and NHTSA all independently investigating the problem.
10 automakers shack up in Detroit hotel to talk Takata airbags originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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14-12-2014, 11:10 PM
10 automakers shack up in Detroit hotel to talk Takata airbags
