Takata recall: 80,000 Aussie cars affected by fresh risk

Audi has joined BMW in promising to buy back Australian customer vehicles fitted with what the competition watchdog calls a “serious” new Takata airbag safety risk that now affects 78,000 vehicles from eight manufacturers in total.

More than a month after BMW confirmed it would purchase 12,663 E46 3 Series vehicles back from Australian customers, Audi Australia today announced it will begin to buy back 3960 vehicles. Meantime, Ford also announced a separate but related recall for 216 Courier utilities.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says owners of certain Ford, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Toyota models are at “serious risk” from the airbag, which is fitted with Takata 5AT Non-Azide Driver Inflators (NADI) propellant.

The NADI-related airbags have not been captured under the existing compulsory recall of Takata airbags, but are linked with at least one death and two serious injuries in Australia.

The full list of vehicles fitted with the NADI propellant can be found at the bottom of this story.

“There is a serious safety risk that these NADI airbags may misdeploy in an accident, which may cause metal fragments to propel out of the airbag at high speed, causing serious injuries or death to vehicle occupants. There is also a risk that these airbags may under-inflate,” a statement from the ACCC said.

“Audi and BMW have already started voluntary recalls of affected vehicles, and the ACCC calls on other suppliers to take urgent action to address the safety risk to consumers.

“About 78,000 vehicles manufactured by Audi, BMW, Ford, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Toyota between 1996 and 2000 and fitted with the faulty airbags with NADI 5-AT inflators were supplied in Australia. While it is expected that many of these vehicles will no longer be in use, a substantial number of affected vehicles are likely to be still registered and still in use.

“Safety authorities in Australia have received reports of three incidents involving suspected misdeployments of these airbags in Australia. There has been a serious injury and a fatality in separate accidents involving BMW vehicles, and another serious injury resulting from an accident involving another vehicle.”

Audi says it will buy back registered cars involved in the recall at market value "as determined by an independent third party valuer appointed by Audi". It is understood it is cheaper for Audi to purchase back vehicles rather than engineer and test replacement airbags.

Those vehicles include 1997-2000 Audi A4, 1998-2000 Audi A6, 1998-2000 Audi A8, 1999-2000 Audi TT and 1998-1999 Audi Cabriolet. The full list of VIN numbers is available here.

Owners won't be able to have their airbags replaced "due to the age of the vehicles", says Audi.

Audi says it will contact affected owners. Those concerned can also call 1800 856 770 to see whether their vehicle is affected.

"It is recommended that owners of vehicles affected by the recall make an appointment with their nearest Audi authorised dealer as soon as possible so that the vehicle can be inspected," Audi said.

Elsewhere, Ford this morning announced a forthcoming recall of 216 Courier utes built between 1998 and 2000.

“Owners of the recalled vehicles will be contacted with details once Ford issues the recall,” Ford said in a statement.

“Owners of airbag-equipped Courier’s produced between late 1998 and early 2000 are encouraged to call Ford’s Takata airbag hotline on 1800 503 673 for more information.”

According to the ACCC, along with aforementioned Audi and Ford models, plus the E46 BMW 3 Series, the new recall takes in variants of the following models:

* Honda: Honda Legend (1996-2000), Honda CR-V (1997-2000), Honda Accord (1997-1999)
* Mazda: Eunos 800 (1996-1999)
* Mitsubishi: NL Pajero (1997-2000), CE Lancer (1997-2000), WA Express (1997-2000), CE Mirage (1997-2000), WA Starwagon (1997-2000)
* Suzuki: Grand Vitara (1998-2000)
* Toyota: Starlet 3 door (1997-1999), Starlet 5 door (1997-1999), Paseo (1997-1999), Celica (1997-1999), RAV4 3 door (1997-1999), RAV4 5 door (1997-1999) and Echo/Vitz (1999)

The full list of vehicles is available at the product safety website.

The development comes as the NSW Coroner examines the way regulators have handled the Takata saga, including whether they could have prevented the death of a Sydney man in 2017.