Yahoo Autos NHTSA Urges Owners of “Do Not Drive” Pickups to Get Them Fixed
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a public plea asking owners of Takata-recall-affected 2006 Ford Ranger and Mazda B-Series pickup trucks to get them fixed as soon as possible. “I cannot stress strongly enough the urgency of this recall-these airbags are dangerous,” NHTSA deputy administrator Heidi King said in a release. “Every vehicle must be accounted for now.”
Federal regulators have advised most vehicle owners affected by the recall of vehicles with potentially explosive Takata airbags to continue driving with their airbags enabled while they wait for a fix, as the likelihood that the part will work properly far outweighs an explosion. That’s not the case for a certain group of vehicles, however, which NHTSA has said should not be driven at all. Among such “do not drive” vehicles in the United States are the aforementioned 33,320 Ford Rangers and 2205 Mazda B-Series pickups. So far, only about half of those vehicles have been fixed, NHTSA said, citing figures from Ford and Mazda.
Ford and Mazda have offered to tow the vehicles to a repair site for free; this is in addition to free Takata-related repairs for all vehicles affected by the recall. The automakers had first issued a “do not drive” declaration for 2860 of the pickups in January, after discovering that two people in 2006 Ranger pickups were killed by Takata airbag inflators that had been produced on the same day. More than 32,000 additional examples were added to the list in February. Rangers from model years 2004 to 2011 had already been part of the sprawling Takata airbag recall, which includes about 50 million driver’s- and passenger-side airbags in 37 million vehicles, but the vast majority are considered safe to drive as they await repair.
The only other vehicles to receive a “do not drive” label are a group of Hondas termed Alpha cars, which include the 2001–2002 Accord and Civic, the 2002 Honda CR-V and Odyssey, the 2002–2003 Acura 3.2TL, the 2003 Acura 3.2CL, and the 2003 Honda Pilot. Lab testing found that airbag inflators in those vehicles could have up to a 50 percent chance of rupturing.
Everything You Need to Know about the Massive Takata Airbag Recall
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As part of its oversight of the Takata airbag recall, NHTSA has divided affected vehicles into 12 priority groups, which correspond to the risk of airbag explosion based on a vehicle’s age and its exposure to heat and humidity. Independent testing has found that the faulty airbag inflators are most likely to rupture after long-term exposure to temperature fluctuations and moisture, so older vehicles and those located in high-humidity parts of the country are considered higher priorities for repair. There are rolling recall deadlines that extend into 2020, and NHTSA is aiming for a 100 percent completion rate. Owners can check to see if their vehicle is affected and get information by plugging in their vehicle’s VIN on NHTSA’s online recall lookup tool.
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