Additional Takata Airbag Recalls Reported

Takata airbags took center stage at the end of 2014. The airbag company based in Japan took a lot of heat from the national and international media for the at least seven deaths that have resulted from faulty Takata products. The fallout from the faulty airbags has also been millions of vehicle recalls, especially those from Honda. The Takata Corporation might not survive this situation and it will certainly be a difficult one for Honda who had to lower their growth goals this year as they deal with the recalls.

Just as the situation seemed to grow quiet, it has now returned to the headlines. Automotive News first reported Toyota and Nissan have significantly increased the number of vehicles that they are putting under recall for defective airbag components. Nissan is reportedly adding 1.56 million vehicles to their worldwide recall effort, including 326,000 in North America. Toyota, meanwhile has decided to ramp up their Takata related recalls by 5 million globally and by 600,000 in the United States. A report from Autoblog also indicates Honda will be adding more recalls to their list, but they haven’t publicly specified the amount.

The impact of recalls for dealers can be both positive and sometimes negative. In a recent report, we noted that sometimes dealers do not receive exactly what they put in from automakers for recall repair work. The question is how do you fare at your store? Are you always fully compensated by your automaker for recall repairs, or do you need to makeup for those costs through your part fees or another method? What works best at your store when dealing with recalls and automaker reimbursements?