The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration set a March 31 deadline for airbag replacement in vehicles requiring them according to the multi-make recall of Taka airbags. The Safety Institute’s survey of vehicle owners affected shows that 155 consumers have complained to NHTSA about airbag replacements not being done on their vehicles due to short supply of replacement parts.
The analysis, conducted by Quality Control Systems Corp. for The Safety Institute, and sponsored by the Newsome Melton Law Firm, shows that Chrysler, Ford and Toyota have together garnered 80% of the complaints.
It has become manufacturers’ routine response to injuries or deaths caused by an exploding Takata airbag inflator to cite the precise number of notices that have been sent to the driver before the incident and to re-state the urgent need for all consumers to immediately seek a repair. However, the consumer complaints identified in this study show that many consumers are actually making multiple unsuccessful attempts to obtain recall repairs.
