Honda resolute on Takata airbag fix
Japanese car-maker's stakeholders have issued a firm memo to Australian ownersHonda Australia has re-issued a memo to customers affected by the Takata airbag scandal: please don’t ignore the recall notice.
On Monday the local distributor pledged to continue the recall program that has so far canvassed 420,000 vehicles, with Honda Australia director Stephen Collins conceding that a lack of action from affected owners stands as the biggest obstacle to completing the work.
“We have been repairing up to 5000 inflators per week, and if you divide that across 100 dealers that's a lot of recall work,” Collins told reporters.
“We're churning through them. At this stage we've got just over 400,000 vehicles that are affected and we've repaired just over half of them. We're hoping to increase the rate in the second half of the year as parts availability improves.”
Honda is one of about a dozen car makers to fit defective airbags to its vehicles supplied by equipment manufacturer Takata, culminating in the world’s largest automotive recall.
At least 11 deaths have been attributed to the fault globally, a result of shrapnel propelled by explosive airbags. There are no known instances in Australia.
Honda has hired more technicians and extended trading hours at its dealerships to handle the volume of recalls, however, a shortage of some parts has impeded progress.
Collins said Honda planned to complete most recalls within the next 12 months.
The recall itself only takes about one hour in total, and usually involves the front driver, front passenger or both airbags being replaced.
Collins said Honda had tried to make the process as painless as possible.
“My mantra has been 'we fix every single car',” Collins said.
“Whether we reach 100 per cent may not be realistic for a whole host of reasons but at the end of the day our communication up the line to Honda and the dealers is we fix every single car.”
Honda’s Australian website allows customers to check their VIN number against the recall, and has opened a national call centre (1800 789 839).
“We've got instances where we've written numerous, numerous letters to people and we still can't get them to come back," he said.
"We're doing a lot of things over and above to get them back in.”
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