Honda Now Has Independent Shops Checking For Takata Airbags
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Honda has added yet another weapon in its battle to find owners of vehicles with a potentially faulty Takata airbag module: independent repair shops. The automaker has teamed up with software provider CCC to create a program that flags a Honda or an Acura vehicle with an open recall notice when it's brought in for collision repair.
CCC's program, dubbed True Recall, was rolled out in October to all 22,000 repair shops across the country that use its data network. When an estimate is being written, the system will run the vehicle's VIN against a database provided by Honda. If the vehicle has an open Takata airbag recall that hasn't been fixed, a notification will pop up on the screen and a copy of the recall will be printed for the consumer. The notification advises the body shop to tell the owner of the vehicle, check with the owner on what Honda or Acura dealership they'd like to use, and then the body shop is encouraged to reach out to that dealership to facilitate the repair on the customer's behalf.
The notification of customers via independent repair shops outside Honda's purview speaks to the urgency the automaker faces in identifying as many vehicles as possible that could have the potentially lethal Takata airbag modules inside. In October, Honda and U.S. regulators confirmed the eleventh U.S. death linked to faulty Takata airbag inflators. Another five deaths have been identified globally.
The Takata inflator crisis -- the largest safety recall in U.S. history -- has affected fifteen automakers and led to the recall through 2019 of nearly seventy million inflators in U.S. vehicles. Honda and Acura vehicles make up 10.7 million of that total.
Honda has gone so far as to scour salvage yards and auto recyclers across the country to find its vehicles with affected airbag modules and has purchased thousands to keep them from returning to the road.
CCC's program, dubbed True Recall, was rolled out in October to all 22,000 repair shops across the country that use its data network. When an estimate is being written, the system will run the vehicle's VIN against a database provided by Honda. If the vehicle has an open Takata airbag recall that hasn't been fixed, a notification will pop up on the screen and a copy of the recall will be printed for the consumer. The notification advises the body shop to tell the owner of the vehicle, check with the owner on what Honda or Acura dealership they'd like to use, and then the body shop is encouraged to reach out to that dealership to facilitate the repair on the customer's behalf.
The notification of customers via independent repair shops outside Honda's purview speaks to the urgency the automaker faces in identifying as many vehicles as possible that could have the potentially lethal Takata airbag modules inside. In October, Honda and U.S. regulators confirmed the eleventh U.S. death linked to faulty Takata airbag inflators. Another five deaths have been identified globally.
The Takata inflator crisis -- the largest safety recall in U.S. history -- has affected fifteen automakers and led to the recall through 2019 of nearly seventy million inflators in U.S. vehicles. Honda and Acura vehicles make up 10.7 million of that total.
Honda has gone so far as to scour salvage yards and auto recyclers across the country to find its vehicles with affected airbag modules and has purchased thousands to keep them from returning to the road.
