Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and All Auto Recalls (AAR) have joined forces to find and recover defective Takata airbags still installed in vehicles across the Australian salvage and vehicle recycling industry.
A mandatory recall notice was issued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) that requires all manufacturers to account for all Affected Takata Airbag Inflators (ATAIs) that were used in their vehicles by 31 December 2020.
“Our partnership with All Auto Recalls is a critical component of this effort and commitment by FCA,” said Luis Gonzalez, Products Safety and Recalls Manager at FCA. “We are proud to be working closely with the All Auto Recalls team who have already, in only a few days, helped us account for more ATAIs than we’ve been able to locate in the past year.”
The new agreement between the two organisations will see AAR manage the retrieval of ATAIs on behalf of FCA from the salvage and vehicle recycling industry.
“We are working with over 300 recyclers across Australia on a day-to-day basis and have well in excess of 600,000 VINs under our recalls management platform,” said Chris Daglis, Managing Director at AAR. “Vehicle manufacturers such as FCA recognise that All Auto Recalls offers significant value to their endeavour to meet their obligations under the ACCC mandatory recall. In this specific case, we have enabled FCA to account for five times the amount of ATAIs than that which they had accounted for to date from the automotive recycling industry.”
AAR says it began its outreach programme this week for FCA to all their recycler members regarding the airbags and will continue to do so in the coming months.
“The response from our members has been excellent,” said Chad Counselman, Technical Sales Manager at AAR. “We have over 100 Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler airbags already on their way back to our warehouse and more on their way. We are here to help the auto recyclers meet their obligations, work with them to put good recall practices within their businesses and make sure the parts they are selling are safe. We can guarantee vehicle manufacturers that are serious about accounting for as many of these ticking time bombs as possible, that engaging All Auto Recalls will deliver a better outcome than they would otherwise achieve. What we’ve done for FCA in just days is proof of that.”