Dodgy airbags replaced with same

AT LEAST five major car manufacturers have been caught refitting vehicles with potentially faulty airbags, leaving people driving ticking “time bombs”.

A Choice investigation has revealed Toyota, Mazda, BMW, Lexus and Subaru have been refitting vehicles with the potentially faulty airbags through a flawed recall process.

The consumer advocacy group found the companies had failed to inform consumers of the ongoing risk of death or injury.

The revelation comes as motorists are being urged to check whether they are driving cars containing potentially deadly airbags, after a faulty model was blamed for killing a man in a Sydney crash.

Police said a faulty airbag was likely to blame for the July 13 tragedy, with the driver “struck in the neck by a small fragment”.

Choice says the faulty Takata airbag has been linked to 18 deaths worldwide.

The dodgy airbags can explode and launch metal shards and have also been linked to at least 180 injuries.

Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey slammed the manufacturers for fitting faulty airbags, warning that drivers were the ones being put at risk.

“With 2.3 million vehicles in Australia requiring their potentially lethal Takata airbags to be replaced, it’s clear the car companies are under pressure to fulfil their obligations under Australian consumer law,” he said.

“However, refitting vehicles with the same dangerous airbags still leaves people driving ticking time-bombs.”

Choice approached 14 manufacturers in Australia and asked whether this temporary fix had been applied to the cars recalled.

“It’s deeply concerning to think these bombs in a bag lie in wait in many popular cars poised to explode their deadly shrapnel into unsuspecting victims,” Mr Godfrey said.

“Although Toyota, Mazda, BMW, Lexus and Subaru admitted to Choice they made identical replacements, perhaps more worrying are the other manufacturers who continue to refuse to share this information with the public.”

Choice singled out Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi, who all had vehicles impacted by the recall, for “remaining silent” about any potential ongoing risk to the public.

Choice said it was concerning some consumers faced a six-month wait for the problem to be fixed.

The recall covers about 100 million cars worldwide.

Choice said consumers should expect their faulty airbags to be replaced in a reasonable amount of time and they could lodge a complaint with the Department of Fair Trade if this did not occur.

Choice found only 31% of 2.3 million vehicles had had their potentially lethal airbags replaced as of April.

In a brief statement, Takata apologised over the widespread concern and inconvenience caused as a result of its inflators and urged drivers to check if their vehicles were under recall.

Choice insisted the recall should serve as a wake-up call to the government about the flaws in product safety systems.