business

Takata air bag recall doubles to nearly 34 million

20 Comments
By MARCY GORDON and TOM KRISHER

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20 Comments
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I wonder if Takata can survive this financially? The US government has again blown things out of proportion and inflated their work loads like the big bags of wind they are.

-19 ( +1 / -20 )

The US government has again blown things out of proportion and inflated their work loads like the big bags of wind they are.

Feel free to drive one of the cars that has the potential defect and then tell me that safety is not an issue. It's playing russian roulette.

I wonder when the Japanese government is going to investigate and force recalls here.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Supposedly only a handful of people within Tanaka are directly responsible for this. There were 100% aware they were cutting corners and went ahead and told everybody else everything was okay and safety inspections were up to key. Not only have these people cost lives, they have costs millions and millions of dollars in damage, if not billions. Look at all the time the countless people have spent investigating and trying to fix this. The best Honda CEO in 15 years was forced to step down because he chose to go with Tanaka airbags. What I am getting at, is the people at the top of responsibility of this need to serve life in prison, but I am sure they nothing at all will happen. Loose their job with fat pension.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

I forsee a company bailout.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

CEO Takada says: "We are committed to continuing to work closely with NHTSA and our automaker customers to do everything we can to advance the safety of drivers"

Too little, too late Mr. Takada. You've lost the trust of everyone already by not cooperating with investigations and will probably lose your company too.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

@Robert Dykes

Supposedly only a handful of people within Tanaka are directly responsible for this. There were 100% aware they were cutting corners and went ahead and told everybody else everything was okay and safety inspections were up to key.

That's only the beginning. It wasn't mentioned in the article (surprising, really), but Takata has been destroying evidence of internal testing of potentially faulty airbags. They send workers out to junkyards to destroy / remove any airbags that could be tested by the authorities.

Unsurprisingly, nothing will happen here in Japan because we all know how Japan Inc. operates. I'd hazard a guess that Takata has a monopoly on airbags here in Japan - if it's 34m bags in the US alone, can you imagine the scale here in Japan?

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Supposedly only a handful of people within Tanaka are directly responsible for this.

That should be unsurprising, but apparently it's a nationwide coverup aimed at world domination according to the some of the more hysterical posters.

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

The Takata recalls have affected many Japanese car brands but also some European brands as well. The only cars that the Takata recalls haven't affected are Korean cars. Korean cars may get a sales boost from this news. Recently, Hyundai and KIA got the 2nd highest market share in Russia after Russia's Tata Motors. The combined market share of Hyundai-KIA surpassed that of Toyota in Europe as of April 2015. The only reason why Hyundai-KIA is performing worse in the US is because most Japanese car brands have many manufacturing plants there, whereas Hyundai and KIA haven't expanded their facilities globally as much.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

"Takata CEO Shigehisa Takada said in a statement that the action is a “clear path” to restoring the trust of automakers and drivers."

Hardy har har.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

^Not Tata Motors but AvtoVAZ. Also Hyundai-KIA has a higher market share than AvtoVAZ. Russia's auto industry market share rankings 2015. 1. Hyundai-KIA, 2. AvtoVAZ, 3. Volkswagen, 4. Toyota.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The US government has again blown things out of proportion and inflated their work loads like the big bags of wind they are.

Nonsense. All the U.S. governmnet did is come down on the side of the consumer/safety. If Takata had not tried to act like they were in Japan -- where they could stall, obfuscate, stone-wall, deceive and actually destroy evidence -- this might have been different. But NO foreign company can expect to act like that, and not feel the full wrath of the government. They got terrible advice and they are paying the price. Simple as that.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

jerseyboy: "Nonsense. All the U.S. governmnet did is come down on the side of the consumer/safety. If Takata had not tried to act like they were in Japan -- where they could stall, obfuscate, stone-wall, deceive and actually destroy evidence -- this might have been different."

Exactly. I always love it when a corrupt Japanese company tries to pull the same crap that flies here overseas and gets absolutely slammed for it. There are still posters on here, and Japanese, of course, blaming this all on everyone else, saying it's the automakers fault in the US (that produce JAPANESE CARS and are ruled on by execs here!), despite the deaths occurring world wide, etc. Anything to deflect blame from where it lies -- Takada.

And I have no doubt the president will be a no-show again for interviews and questions.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Poor quality, cutting corners, dishonesty.

This is rather common with "made in Japan" these days.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Just as a reminder of how utterly and completely obnoxious this Takata airbag situation is, here's an eye-opening NYT article exposing the wilful negligence demonstrated at the very highest levels of Takata management.

Link: "Takata Saw and Hid Risk in Airbags in 2004, Former Workers Say"

I've always hated the idea of rank-and-file employees suffering for the misconduct of management in companies big or small, but in this case, with so many lives dependent upon quality control measures being faithfully and accurately followed, particularly with a tech that, ironically, is designed to save lives, Takata needs to go the way of the dinosaur and die out. Providing airbags to 1/5th of all automobiles in the world, they're too big not to fail.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Takata is in very serious financial trouble here and probably will not survive this issue as it is too large. I guess my puns were too deep for some of the posters here. Inflated = air bags, blown things = air bags, big bags of wind = again air bags. WTH I guess my sense of dry (very dry like I like my martini's, just wave the cork of the vermouth bottle over the glass is enough) humor does not gel with the younger generations. I guess I need to go back to trolling the Ethernet for other sources of entertainment because 99% of what is posted here and on other web sites is garbage anyway and just fun and games to take the edge off of the daily grind. It's amazing how many jobs there are in IT work and web sites that are really totally useless and at the end of the day unproductive and meaningless but what the hey, folks make money on other folks stupidity as the great PT Barnum once said " there is a sucker born every minute"

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Hawkeye: "It's amazing how many jobs there are in IT work and web sites that are really totally useless and at the end of the day unproductive and meaningless but what the hey, folks make money on other folks stupidity"

And yet here you are, during your day, posting. Well done!

"Takata is in very serious financial trouble here and probably will not survive this issue as it is too large."

Nor should they survive this. It is a scandal of their own making, why should they be helped and/or bailed out? especially when the president won't meet to talk with anyone?

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Hawkeye: "Long live the internet and JT as well as the jobs as meaningful as they are in our own minds, like a mutual admiration club, yes let's create a club like JT and make ourselves the president so I have a following."

And yet this is your SECOND message doing exactly that. And all this pretending not to care in a post that starts off sounding like you feel very sorry for Takada -- a company that has cut corners, covered up safety problems, and lied to the rest of the world. You maybe have stock in the company or something?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I hope this rotten company does not survive financially. I hope the creeps who run this company go to prison or kill themselves. They made airbags that maim and kill people. And these swine have done everything possible to dodge the facts.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Don't understand why replace the defect part with defect parts? Since they don't know why or how to correct the problem, is replacing the part doing any good. Is the cars with Takata air bags safe if they don't understand how too make a safe airbag? Seems like we will see more recalls in the future. The with the US Supreme Court, since the ruling the companies are like people, why isn't anyone in Takata being charge with murder? They knew the problems for years and so did Honda.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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