Fiat Chrysler Pressured to Move on Takata Airbag Recall

Fiat Chrysler was told by U.S regulators to move up its vehicle recall of faulty airbags. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a letter the company should start the recall on vehicles equipped with the faulty Takata Corp airbags by December 1, 2014.  Last June Chrysler decided to replace the airbag inflators on 371,000 vehicles equipped with the Takata airbags; however the company was planning to make the notice to consumers on December 19, 2014 that’s when the replacement parts would be available.

According to NHSTA’s deputy administrator David Friedman “the consequences of these inflator failures are serious”.  

The Takata’s faulty airbags are linked to many injuries and at least five deaths. 

At a U.S. Senate hearing on November 20, 2014 in which both Chrysler and Takata came under fire Hiroshi Shimizu apologized for the injuries and deaths related to the companies faulty airbags. After a two year period of making piecemeal repairs on close to 6 million cars left vehicle owners uncertain that their airbags were to still prone to malfunction.