Toyota and Mercedes cars manufacturers will immobilize thousands of vehicles in France in turn to change their airbags, made dangerous by defective components, he said on Thursday, April 10.
As Citroën and Volkswagen, Toyota and Mercedes have already had to identify and remember “soon” twenty models marketed between 2001 and 2018, advising their owner that traveling whenever the repair was not done (a procedure called “Stop Drive”).
Popular models in question
The popular Toyota Yaris (produced between 2001 and 2017) and Corolla (2001-2010) are particularly concerned, as well as the Mercedes Class A II produced between 2004 and 2016 and Class C II and III (2004-2016). The twenty models mentioned correspond a priori to those present in the list of the ministry available on their website.
In total, there are still airbags of 2.3 million vehicles for replacing in Continental France, the ministry said in a press release. A Toyota spokesman confirmed the next launch of a retirement campaign in Continental France after he launched abroad.
The owners in question must consult the identification number of their vehicle on their gray card and verify on the website of the manufacturers, with pages dedicated for the campaigns of these reminders in Toyota, as in Mercedes.
The situation of the vehicles of the Chevrolet brand, rarer on the French roads, is also “under special surveillance after the reports,” the ministry said in a statement.
Reinforced reminders required by the Ministry
The Japanese manufacturer’s airbag scandal has been stirring the automotive sector since 2014 due to very aging gas, this security equipment explodes projecting parts of the drivers.
In France, 29 accidents linked to these airbags were identified, causing at least 11 deaths abroad and one in continental France, according to the Ministry of Transportation.
The Ministry of Transport now forces automobile manufacturers to intensify the search for vehicles still equipped with dangerous airbags, under penalty of strong financial sanctions, rising up to one million euros per day of delay, according to a decree transmitted to the dealers on April 7 and consulted by AFP.
The manufacturers must, in particular, “send a new letter to all the owners of the vehicle in question, asking them to stop driving their vehicle and change their airbag”, and establish “a centralized information system that allows the monitoring of the vehicles in question” until the real replacement of the airbag.
Source: BFM TV
