It was nearly a year ago that Japanese airbag manufacturer Takata first acknowledged defects in its products and issued a recall that included 34 million vehicles. Safecar.gov provided a Vehicle Identification lookup (VIN lookup) to help facilitate the massive recall. Takata airbags had the potential to explode when triggered, and had been linked to a half-dozen fatalities.
A year later and Takata now admits that as many as 40 million additional cars are stocked with the dangerous airbags. With that, the largest recall in history more than doubles in size. Only about 8 million of the original recall vehicles have had their airbags replaced. It’s a slow process — and it can’t be. Mark Rosekin of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says: “The issue is urgent.” But it’s estimated to be 2019 before enough replacement airbags will be ready. The Department of Transportation hotline number is 1-888-327-4236 — to find out if your car is on the list.