With millions of vehicles subject to recall, including many in Lake County, even staff at the state”s Department of Motor Vehicles wonder if there are enough replacement parts to go around.
Jaime Garza, a spokesperson for the California DMV in Sacramento, said that he received an airbag recall notice for his own BMW Series 3 but had not yet received the free replacement.
“I”m just not finding the resources here in Sacramento to get this fixed,” he added.
Heath Fifield, owner of West Lake Auto Center on 2195 S. Main St. in Lakeport, sells used cars and trucks and agrees with Garza”s assessment.
“It”s such a huge recall,” Fifield observed. “It”s almost 8 million. They (the manufacturers) simply can”t get that many airbags out to the dealerships” service departments. It”s going to take a long time and maybe it can”t get done at all.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), under the U.S. Department of Transportation, urged U.S. vehicle owners on Wednesday Oct. 22, to check with their car dealership, auto maker, or the NHTSA website (www.nhtsa.gov) for the list of cars, trucks and SUV”s affected by the massive 7 million vehicle recall of certain models equipped with Takata Corporation airbags. The recall list includes models built by Toyota, Honda, Mazda, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Mitsubishi, from the years 2000 to 2008, which contain the defective airbags that could erupt upon minimal impact causing serious harm to the occupants of the vehicle.
To date, four deaths and 100 injuries were reportedly caused by the inflator canister of chemical propellant packed inside the airbag, detonating and flinging metal fragments ripping through the airbag into the face, legs, arms and body of the driver or passenger.
Garza said in a telephone interview Friday that it would be a “lengthy and expensive project” to get a breakdown of particular vehicles in Lake County that are affected by the recall. Garza did provide the DMV”s December 2013 Statistics of all vehicles registered in Lake County as being 44,802 cars/SUVs and 21,182 trucks.
When asked if a customer inquires about the recall, Fifield responded that he will try to help and, if he can, fix them.
“There”s been lots of recalls in the past,” he said. “Remember the 1970s and ”80s with Chevy”s saddlebag fuel tanks built on the outside of the truck? One sideswipe hit and it went up in flames. I always tell my customers, Google the VIN number of the car you”re buying to see if it”s on a recall.”
Local dealers expect to hear the question often over the next few weeks as word of the recall spreads.
General manager Tim Wynacht at Kathy Fowler Auto Center, 1175 Parallel Rd., Lakeport, said on Monday “We hired an extra employee just to coordinate the recalls that our GM and Chrysler customers are facing.”
Wynacht wants anyone calling about the airbags to ask for Dennis Vermeer, their Recall Coordinator. So far Vermeer has researched with the manufacturer on about 20 customer vehicles. Fortunately, none were affected, but Wynacht expects more work.
General manager Jason Thurston of Thurston Auto Plaza, 2800 N. State St., Ukiah, said for his Toyota customers, “the manufacturers are required to notify the registered owner if the vehicle is involved in a recall.”
When asked about the procedures to replace the airbags, Thurston said, “As far as questions on repairs, Toyota, will instruct us on how to handle them.”
The NHTSA”s Airbag Recall List was called into question last week by several national news reporting agencies as being over or under the number of actual vehicles equipped with the defective airbags that were being reported by the car manufacturers at their own websites.
Kathryn Henry, spokesperson, for the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C., confirmed that the list of vehicles shown at their website is “accurate and complete”. The NHTSA said the recall matter is urgent and if a vehicle owner has not received a recall notice, they can use the NHTSA website tool to run their VIN number to discover if it”s been recalled. The site also allows the consumer to sign up for “Recall Alerts”, which are emailed to consumers before the manufacturers recall notices are sent.
Takata Corporation, the manufacturer of the airbag, has a placed a statement on the Company”s website by Shigehisa Takada, Chairman & CEO. In part it says;
“All known owners of the affected Toyota and Lexus vehicles will be notified by first class mail to return their vehicles to a Toyota or Lexus dealer. The dealer will replace the front passenger airbag inflator with a newly manufactured one. If a replacement part is not available at the time of vehicle service, the dealer will follow procedures to temporarily disable the front passenger airbag assembly. In addition, the dealer will install a glove box hang tag informing occupants that the front passenger seat should not be occupied until the inflator assembly is replaced and the airbag is fully functional.”
The Takata website also states that their engineers are currently evaluating the reason for the exploding inflator canisters. They believe that because the deaths occurred in Florida and Puerto Rico, the culprit is probably “humid weather” which caused moisture to seep into the canister, eroding the chemicals and upon impact, the canister bursts open sending shards of metal outwards.
