Millions of cars set to be recalled over potentially faulty, dangerous airbags

The Federal government will order a recall of 2.3 million cars with potentially faulty airbags.

It will be Australia’s first ever compulsory vehicle recall order and it will mean those who don’t get their potentially deadly Takata airbags replaced, will not be able to sell their vehicles.

Ford, Holden, Audi and Volkswagen among others will be forced to replace the airbags for free and as soon as possible.

One caller to 3AW Breakfast said there was a shortage of stock, and he received a letter from BMW to say a replacement for the airbag was still not available.

Motoring editor at News Corp Richard Blackburn told Neil Mitchell it was likely as many as 4 million cars would be recalled.

“Some of the cars are up to 12 years old,” he said.

“That’s part of the problem these car companies have had with tracking these cars down, some of these cars have changed hands three or four times.”

He said it could jam the used car market.

“The alternative is worse, we can’t let this problem continue on indefinitely,” he said.

“We’ve had 23 deaths worldwide, we’ve had a death in Australia and a very serious injury. If people aren’t going to do this recall themselves, there needs to be a compulsory aspect to it.”

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Neil Mitchell also spoke with Michael Sukkar about the matter.

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Photo from NT Police: The Takata airbag in a RAV4 SUV, responsible for injuring a 21-year-old in Darwin.