Toyota Australia purchasing wrecked parts to mitigate Takata scandal

Toyota Australia has revealed it is purchasing wrecked car parts from yards around the country in a bid to eliminate faulty airbags finding their way back on the road.

Speaking with journalists in Tokyo this week, Toyota Australia’s newly appointed vice president of national operations, Sean Hanley, also threw his support behind calls to block owners from re-registering vehicles affected by the deadly Takata scandal.

Globally, at least 19 people have died because of injuries sustained by the exploding inflators, which can spray metal fragments into the cabin when the faulty airbags deploy incorrectly. Vehicles fitted with faulty Takata inflators have been subject to a voluntary recall in Australia, with about 38 per cent of the 2.49 million cars recalled since 2009 fixed.

However vehicle importers have been hitting snags due to owners of vehicles fitted with faulty airbags either uncontactable (as they have moved, changed email or phone contacts but not advised their new details) or not responding to repeated letters, emails or telephone calls.

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Hanley said Toyota was eager to resolve the matter.

“We are doing everything possible to rectify this situation, even up to the point where we are contacting wreckers around Australia. This is what we are doing,” he said.

“I know the industry in general is doing a great job under very difficult circumstances.

“We’re over 80 percent clearance rate on the critical Alpha airbags. Where we can identity and find airbags that shouldn’t be in the market we will do whatever we can.”

Hanley backed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s proposal to stop owners from re-registering vehicles fitted with potentially deadly airbags.

“I think we’re all working closely together to do the best we can to get through a very trying situation,” he said.

“The government is doing the right thing, the car companies are doing the right thing… anything that brings more attention to encourage people to check, encourage those with notifications to get their car fixed, we see as a good thing.”

Car companies involved in previous recalls include Toyota, Honda, BMW, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Lexus, Jeep, Nissan, Chrysler, Dodge, Ferrari and Mazda. Most recently, another 877,000 vehicles from Audi, Ford, Jaguar, Volkswagen, Holden, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and Tesla fitted with European-made Takata airbags have been added to the recall.