Anger over car buybacks
FRUSTRATED motorists set to lose their cars to deadly Takata airbags have lashed out at “disgraceful conduct” surrounding manufacturer buyback programs.
Manufacturers such as Honda, Toyota, Audi and BMW are buying back thousands of vehicles sold with potentially deadly airbags linked to two deaths in Australia and dozens more overseas.
Car makers face severe penalties if they do not rectify the Takata airbag problem in Australia by December 31.
While many reasonably new cars can be fixed, fresh airbag inflators for older cars built in the late 1990s to early 2000s are not available. The ACCC has encouraged carmakers to buy cars from customers and turn them into scrap given the dangerous nature of airbags which can explode and propel shrapnel into the cabin.
About 78,000 cars sold between 1996 and 2000 have faulty Takata NADI 5-AT type airbag inflators.
Gold Coast resident Natalie Friswell took her car to her dealer for an airbag check only to be told it must never be driven again.
“They offered us $950 and said ‘you can accept it or don’t’,” she said.
ACCC chair Rod Sims said customers could contact the ACCC or the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development if they were unsatisfied.
Honda owners vented on Facebook. Wendy Belli hit out at “disgustingly low ball offers” and Rudi Anslow said his car cost $3000 more than Honda planned to buy it back for. “Devastated” Toyota owners told the brand its buyback offers were “grossly unacceptable”.