Last week the federal government issued a compulsory recall for all vehicles with defective Takata airbags, affecting about two out of seven Australian cars. The faulty airbags, which can spray shrapnel when deployed, have been linked to 23 deaths worldwide, including one in Sydney last year.
About 1.7m Australian vehicles have had the defective airbags replaced but there are still more than 2m vulnerable cars on the road.
Suppliers are required to replace all defective airbags by the end of 2020. Cars with the high-risk “alpha” airbags, which have a one in two chance of exploding dangerously during a crash, are the top priority. There are about 25,000 alpha airbags yet to be replaced and owners of these cars are advised to stop driving immediately.
A spokesman for consumer group Choice, Tom Godfrey, said while the government set down 24 hours as a reasonable period of time in which to repair alpha airbags, what a reasonable period of time was for other airbags would have to be determined by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Before the recall became compulsory, Choice had been contacted by car owners who had been waiting to have their airbags replaced for two years after receiving a recall letter.
Godfrey said owners should lodge a complaint with the ACCC “if your car is under active recall and your supplier won’t confirm a date to replace your airbag, or has scheduled your replacement several months into the future”.
Source: theguardian
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