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Ford, Chrysler and Honda Expanding Their Recall Since Takata Won’t | DrivingSales News

Ford, Chrysler and Honda Expanding Their Recall Since Takata Won’t

December 3, 2014 0 Comments

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The Takata airbag recall hearing grabbed international headlines earlier today. It was revealed in the hearing that Takata still doesn’t know the “root cause” behind malfunctioning airbags, which have killed at least four people in the United States. Lawmakers were once again dissatisfied with the answers that they received, particularly from Takata’s Senior Vice President of Global Quality Assurance, Hiroshi Shimizu. However, other aspects of the case surrounding the recall may have slipped past the quotes, which emerged from the hearing.

Honda, Chrysler and Ford have all decided to expand their recall efforts for Takata airbag-equipped vehicles. According to the Detroit Free Press, Chrysler has decided to recall an additional 149,150 vehicles in “Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan and the Virgin Islands.” It’s a recall that was briskly rejected as insufficient by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A statement attributed to NHTSA reads, “Chrysler’s latest recall is insufficient, doesn’t meet our demands, and fails to include all inflators covered by Takata’s defect information report. NHTSA will determine next steps and take appropriate actions to ensure Chrysler acts to protect its customers.” The NTHSA’s rebuke of Chrysler’s recall came as that organization is seeking a national recall of vehicles equipped with potentially dangerous Takata airbags. Takata, however, took much more heat than Chrysler as they decided to decline the demand of the NHTSA for a national recall. Takata’s Hiroshi Shimizu said earlier today, “At this moment, there is not enough scientific evidence to change from regional recall to national recall.”

To finalize a whirlwind of a day of testimony, recalls and automotive headlines, Ford has decided to expand their recall. According to CNBC, Ford will recall 13,000 more vehicles in the U.S and federalized territories, bringing their total number of Takata-related recalls to 98,000. In an interview with CNBC, Chris Richter, Senior Auto Analyst at CLSA said that certain OEMs are figuratively picking up the ball that Takata has dropped. “I think what prompted Honda and Ford to expand the level of their recalls is quite simply that Takata didn’t do the right thing, they didn’t expand the scope of their recalls,” Richter said. Right now, Takata cannot support the active airbag recalls. We reported previously that it is expected to take them two years to handle the current number of recalls, with that number of course growing by the day. There is speculation that other airbag manufactures will have to shoulder the recall load because Takata might not be able to survive this recall. Koji Endo, Managing Director at Advanced Research Japan, told CNBC, “There is a possibility of Takata going into insolvency or getting rescued by someone else,” he said. “It depends on the possible penalties they will have to spend on U.S. legal issues.”

The Takata saga is obviously a subject that we have reported on many times. This is because this recall, with what is expected to be a great deal of complications, will impact dealers. Takata doesn’t have enough parts today to support their recall. If customers come to dealerships looking for recall repairs and have to be put on a waiting list, its possible they will become frustrated not with the automaker, but the dealership. There could be an opportunity for dealers to get ahead of the recall logjam and use it to their benefit. If there is an eventual backup at stores from a national Takata recall, dealerships have the chance to train their staff to go the extra mile to reach out to this new group of customers. A slew of relationship building opportunities will be available for your store as millions now, and possibly millions more, seek recalls for their Takata airbags. What would you do at your store to make customers feel welcome during a recall backup? How do you make the most of recalls in terms of creating future customers? Do you think the recall will reach the point of causing major backups at your service center?

About the Author:

The DrivingSales News team is dedicated to breaking the relevant and the tough stories affecting car dealers. Have questions for DrivingSales News? Reach the team at news@drivingsales.com.

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