Honda Australia defends airbag recall process

Honda Australia has defended its handling of the Takata airbag recall, revealing that the driver of the Honda CR-V killed on July 13 was sent five separate recall notices over a 16-month period.

In what is believed to be the first Australian death linked to the global Takata airbag recall affecting more than 60 million vehicles, the 58-year-old male died after a piece of metal from his car’s airbag became lodged in his neck during a collision in Cabramatta last week.

“Our deepest condolences go to the family of that driver at this very, very difficult time,” said Honda Australia Director Stephen Collins at this week’s launch of the fifth-generation CR-V in Canberra.

“We are working very closely with the authorities to provide assistance as we take this matter extremely seriously.”

Honda is the car brand most exposed to the Takata recall in Australia. It is recalling more than 650,000 airbag inflators and to date has replaced over 450,000, representing around 70 per cent of affected airbags.

Honda says about 193,000 of the 650,379 affected vehicles have yet to book in for airbag replacements – a process that takes between 30 and 50 minutes and is free of charge.

Collins says that despite his company’s efforts to reach impacted customers, including issuing more than one million recall notices and in some cases issuing five or six recall notices -- some by registered mail -- Honda still needs to replace 193,454 airbags in around 145,000 cars.

Apart from mail, Honda says it has tried to reach out to customers via phone calls, text messages, email and, in a small number of cases, physical visits by a company representative.

Honda’s 107 Australian dealers are geared up to replace airbags at a rate of up to 10,000 a week and Honda currently has 105,000 replacement airbags in Australia ready to install, with thousands more units in transit.

However, the company is currently replacing about 5000 inflators a week, and at that rate it will take up to 10 months to replace the airbags in all remaining affected vehicles.

“We have 105,000 replacement inflators in stock, covering all of the recalled [vehicles], and in the next four to five weeks we have another 34,000 inflators on their way,” Collins said.

“So the call we’re putting out is for those customers to come in and get the work done… our message is that regardless of make or model, we need customers to check their VIN numbers and act on recall notices.”

The Japanese brand has established a dedicated customer service team, which has extended its foreign language support to 160 languages in an effort to reach more people.

“Our goal has been from day one to get every single customer back. We’re doing our utmost to get these cars repaired,” said Stephen.

Earlier this week, Choice revealed that car manufacturers had been replacing the recalled Takata airbags with identical replacements as a ‘temporary fix’, requiring some vehicles to be recalled a second time.

While absent from Choice’s list on Monday, Honda Australia last night admitted that 42,000 of the airbags replaced so far under its recall campaign were also like-for-like units, but that their replacement had not been undertaken as a stop-gap measure.

About 2800 of those cars have been subject to a second recall but Collins said there were no current plans to recall all 42,000.

“We have no notification at this point in time that they will have to be replaced. If we are notified (by Honda’s parent company) then we will immediately go through the authorities and we will immediately contact customers.”

Customers concerned that their vehicle has had a like-for-like replacement are able to contact Honda to ascertain which part was installed in the recall. In the event a Takata part was used, Honda will work with them on an individual basis to address their concerns.

Multiple Honda models are affected by the recall, including CR-Vs produced between 2001 and 2014, but no current Hondas -- including the new CR-V -- are fitted with Takata airbags.

While Honda Australia has successfully recalled 70 per cent of its own vehicles to date, the Australian auto industry has so far only repaired around 36 per cent of the total 2.35 million impacted vehicles.

Globally, the faulty Takata airbags have been implicated in the deaths of up to 18 people and more than 180 injuries. Most fatalities have occurred in the US, where one in four cars are affected.

A number of vehicle brands are affected, including Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge, as well as BMW, Lexus and Ferrari.

To check if your vehicle is subject to the Takata airbag recall, head here.