Following a study conducted on the safety of Australian Cars, the federal government has recalled cars fitted with Takata Alpha airbags. This is by far the largest call back in the Australian car industry when the government has asked the car companies to call back the ones fitted with the mentioned airbags and get them replaced. Also, people have been advised to stop driving these cars with immediate effect.
The cars that have been mentioned for recall and replacement of airbags include:
- BMW 3 series E46 manufactured between Dec 2001 – March 2003
- Honda Accord, CRV, and Civic manufactured between 2001 – 2002
- Honda Civic, Accord, Accord Euro, CRV, Jazz and MDX manufactured between 2001 – 2003
- Honda Jazz manufactured in 2004
- Mazda 6 and RX 8 manufactured between 2002 – 2007
- Nissan Pulsar, Patrol, Navara, X Trail and Maxima manufactured between 2002 – 2004
- Toyota Corolla, Avensis Verso, and Lexus SC manufactured between 2000 – 2004
- Toyota Echo and Rav 4 manufactured between 2002 – 2003
Check if your car has “alpha” airbags here.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has made a public statement saying that driving these cars can be a potential risk and hence should be avoided. These faulty airbags can explode in the car during the event of mishappening and release shrapnel into the bodies of drivers and their passengers.All these cars that have been called back, will get new airbags whose cost will be borne by the car manufacturer.
Assistant Minister to the Treasurer Michael Sukkar said, “The compulsory recall notice requires all vehicle suppliers to recall and replace the defective airbags in their vehicles within a specified timeframe. To ensure a coordinated recall of this quite large size and scale, suppliers may recall all affected vehicles and replace all defective Takata airbags on a rolling basis, but these must be completed by the 31 December 2020.”
