Thousands of unrepaired airbags in South Florida cars – NBC 6 South Florida

This is a recall that affects over a dozen brands and models: The Takata airbag recall already took place in 2014.

“More than 19 manufacturers, more than 40 million cars across the country,” said Patrick Olsen, editor in chief of Carfax.

Today, some ten years later, there are still millions of vehicles with potential danger lurking inside.

“There are 6.4 million vehicles nationwide that do not have Takata airbags installed,” Olsen said. “It’s just alarming that after 10 years there are still so many of them.”

A big reason for this is the way recalls are sent out. Notices are usually delivered directly to your mailbox. You may see the notice, think it’s junk mail, and throw it away without knowing what it is. Or maybe you saw it but just forgot to take care of it.

“They wait weeks, they wait months,” Olsen said. “And eventually they think, ‘Nothing happened to me, so everything must be OK.’ And unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.”

Olsen said a recent Carfax data analysis shows there are 62,000 of these unrepaired airbags in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The current record heat could be particularly problematic for the affected airbags.

“Over time, moisture builds up inside the airbag inflator, and the more moisture that gets in, the greater the explosive force when the airbag deploys,” Olsen said. “The metal ring around the airbag becomes splinters, flying pieces of metal that are thrown into the cabin.”

Olsen said at least 25 deaths and hundreds of injuries were caused by defective Takata airbags.

“Even if you’re a good driver, someone could hit you and deploy the airbag. If you have the wrong airbag, you could be in trouble,” he said. “A lot of these cars are from the 2002 model year. So these are 20-plus year old cars. They’re on their second, third or fourth owner. A lot of them are in the hands of novice drivers who may not even think about having to worry about recalls.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has dedicated an entire page to the Takata airbag recall. You can view it here.

You can also easily check if there are any open recalls for your car by using your license plate number or VIN on the NHTSA website.