Hey, thanks for that info about Subaru. I thought it was a limited couple of years that Subaru dealt with Takata- affecting 2004-05 vehicles -but on 06/01/16 Subaru added more current year vehicles to the recall list. Interesting comments made by the Fuji Heavy CEO about Subaru’s “future cars.” In Subaru’s defense -…

It’s not just the potential for corruption - you can’t deny that it’s oh so tempting for management in regulatory gov’t agencies to get in bed with the industries they’re supposed to oversee - there’s the obvious problem of realpolitik, wherein regulatory agencies cannot avoid taking practical issues into…

Well articulated reply, but sorry, no sale. You have not convinced me that it’s in the taxpayers’ interests to hire more gubment desk jockeys for the NHTSA. While Pinto is an excellent example of corporate greed, I suggest you read about a few recent examples of the NHTSA’s grotesque incompetence and/or corruption as…

Re: culture

“To me the only clear way to dealing with this is regulation and some serious revamping of the operation, policies and running of agencies (read: expensive, read: tax payer funded,) such as NHTSA and the EPA”

There’s no question that Takata is responsible for shrapnel deaths and injuries. But Takata is looking for a buyer as we speak - what does that tell you? Takata may not be a viable financial entity to sue much longer. As for suing government suits at the NHTSA who may have turned a blind eye to Takata manufacturing…

You raise an excellent point. If there’s no corporate or gov’t bureaucrat suit held personally accountable for the Takata malfeasance, the recall is all Kabuki theatre to placate the masses with faux concern.

My car will be receiving an “interim remedy” in another week. The customer care rep told me it is a newer version of the Takata airbag currently in my car. I have no choice but to allow the interim remedy to be installed. You see, the nice gubment folks at the NHTSA have approved the “interim remedy” - even though it…

“this defect that has affected a infinitesimally small number of people”

Darwin’s Law. And it’s not government’s job to intervene and issue misguided mandates that put the majority at risk to save the few dolts who have always existed at any given time in society.

But kudo’s to Subaru for waking up and dumping Takata after a limited contract run with Takata. Many of the other car makers on your list went the full distance with the cheap exploding airbag manufacturer. Information about ammonium nitrate being a volatile substance that’s subject to degradation has not been a…

Re: Takata’s faked data and poor quality control

It might have been a simple typo error. ( 300 instead of 200). I read the original 1997 Harvard study about low speed airbag risks that was referenced by “scragged” but no poundage number was mentioned there.

I’ve done my own research on the history of airbags and I agree with all you’ve stated. Putting aside the Takata issue, which is a separate potentially criminal manufacturing and design problem, most people don’t know the back story of how airbags came to be a mandated requirement, how one powerful bureaucrat in the…

The numbers of deaths and injuries due to defective Takata airbags are vastly understated by MSM. For example in 2015 the NHTSA fined Honda $70 Million for not reporting 1,729 deaths and injuries that happened from 2003-2014 due to exploding Takata airbags. Consider that this is just 1 out of 14 car makers who…