NHTSA Updates Recall Website After Investigation

Takata Corp. has been under fire in recent times for its faulty front airbag inflators, which have been linked to at least six deaths and many injuries. Since 2008, this major issue has prompted more than 17 million recalls in the United States.

However, for those who have used the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website to determine whether their car needs to be serviced in relation to the Takata airbag recalls, it’s possible that they may have received some misinformation.

Cars.com has reported that it found problems with the NHTSA online tool, which misidentified cars involved in recent Takata airbag recalls as either having already had the necessary work done or as not being part of the recall at all. Cars.com explains that it provided the NHTSA with dozens of vehicle identification numbers (VINs) for listings that were covered under the federal safety recall of faulty airbags, but did not appear on NHTSA’s website. As a result of the investigation, NHTSA has now updated its online tool.

NHTSA’s search tool was launched in August. The intent of the site is to allow a consumer to input a VIN to view information about any unaddressed recalls. For its research, Cars.com obtained hundreds of VINs from nine models that were affected by the Takata recall. When it investigated the status of those cars on the NHTSA site, it found that some of the models did not return consistent results.

One of the aspects of the research that concerned Cars.com the most was with the Ford models that it investigated. Ford’s December 2014 expansion of Takata driver’s-side airbag recalls included the 2005 through 2008 Mustang built between Aug. 18, 2004 and June 25, 2007. Cars.com audited dozens of VINs from various 2006 Mustangs in eight regions, and found that none of them had an open Takata recall.

How is this possible?

It turns out the Ford recall is actually technically something else, according to the automaker. While the NHTSA calls Ford’s campaign a recall, Ford safety representative Kelli Felker says that it’s technically one of Ford’s “customer satisfaction programs.” She said that owners who receive letters at home “would be responding to it as if it was technically a recall. For us, we are treating it as a recall. But in the system, it’s not. So that’s probably why it does not show up on the NHTSA website.”

It seems that the investigation by Cars.com has prompted a change. The company indicates that a new check of its VIN list shows that the vast majority of those same Ford VINs now show open Takata recalls on NHTSA’s website.

“There were some discrepancies in the way Ford loaded VINs into the system, and we’ve worked with them to get the right data,” an NHTSA source told Cars.com, but asked to be kept anonymous. “It’s always helpful when we’re made aware of such discrepancies.”

“Last week, NHTSA requested that all Takata-related programs be accessible on the agency’s website,” said a Ford representative. “That information is now available. Ford continues to cooperate with NHTSA.”

The NHTSA has requested a national recall of cars with defective Takata driver’s-side airbags, and BMW, FCA, Ford, Honda and Mazda have all complied.

However, Cars.com explains there is another serious issue. Defective Takata inflators have been found in frontal airbags on both the driver and passenger side, but passenger-side airbags have only been reported as problematic in areas of “high absolute humidity,” which affects whether cars are recalled nationwide or only in specific regions.

Therefore, because a passenger airbag recall targets where cars are sold and registered, this could cause some major risks for drivers. If a car is purchased in a low humidity region, but the owner then moves to a high humidity area, they could continue to drive the vehicle without receiving a recall notice even once the risk factor becomes relevant.

It’s certainly important for consumers to be aware of this complication, and to ensure that they do the necessary research if they move to a high humidity area from a low humidity region. However, for road trips, it appears that this is not an issue. “From the field data we have gathered, it takes a sustained exposure to high humidity for an increased risk of defect to be present in passenger-side airbags,” explained Nissan technology representative Steve Yaeger. “How many years that equates to is hard to tell, but occasional trips to those areas should not have an impact.”

For consumers, especially those who are in the market for a used car, it’s valuable to consider the fact that the vast majority of cars under the Takata recall have still not been repaired, due to a limited supply of replacement inflators. Although Cars.com explains it would be very helpful if NHTSA’s website showed completed recalls so that consumers could see what has actually been fixed, the agency explained that automakers bear the final responsibility for reporting all recall-related information.

“Manufacturers are responsible for notifying vehicle owners of a recall and tracking whether a vehicle has been remedied,” said NHTSA representative Gordon Trowbridge. “They are responsible for supplying the data for the VIN lookup and updating that data weekly.”