Many Irish Citroen drivers still not responding to lethal airbag recall

Neil Briscoe

Citroën Ireland says that it is ‘well over halfway through’ dealing with the cars affected by a serious stop-drive notice because they are fitted with airbags from the now-defunct Japanese company Takata, which can be deadly.

However, Colin Sheridan of Gowan Auto — which is the privately-owned distributor for Citroën in Ireland — told Breakingnews.ie: “There is still a sizeable number of drivers who haven’t yet been to their dealership. Some are on their third official letter, and many of those are registered letters which have been signed for, so we know that someone is getting them.”

The safety issue at the heart of all this revolves around the airbags fitted to Citroën C3, Citroën DS3, and DS 3 models made between 2009 and 2019. Those cars were fitted with airbags made by the Japanese company Takata, which has been at the centre of a global scandal involving its airbags since 2013.

In 2013, following a spate of deaths involving cars equipped with Takata airbags, it was found that because the company — which declared bankruptcy in 2017 — had been cutting corners in its manufacturing, its airbags could spew shrapnel, made up of tiny pieces of the airbag mechanism, if the airbag inflated in an accident. That shrapnel could cause serious, even fatal, injuries, and it's estimated that at least 35 people have been killed, worldwide, by these faulty airbags, with around 400 people injured.

The scandal triggered the recall of more than 100 million cars around the world, involving brands such as Honda, Ford, and Mercedes-Benz. Citroën’s latest emergency measure comes as it appears that the airbags contain chemicals that may deteriorate over time, which could cause the inflator to rupture and lead to serious injury. The most recent incident occurred when a woman in Reims, driving a Citroën C3, was killed when her airbag inflated following a minor collision in June.

The Takata airbags use ammonium nitrate gas for the instantaneous inflation that’s designed to prevent injury. But the gas can deteriorate in hot and humid conditions, leading to a too-powerful explosion which flings the deadly shrapnel straight at the driver.

Gowan Auto said 1,869 cars are affected here, and all owners who will be contacted by Citroën will have to stop driving their cars until a repair can be organised.

However, Gowan seems to be avoiding the pitfalls in this recall, which have affected Citroën in France and the UK. Stellantis Group, which owns the Citroën brand, has been sharply criticised by consumer organisations in France for not tackling the problem sooner.

Meanwhile, Citroën in the UK — where some 120,000 cars are affected — has also been criticised for not being able to provide sufficient courtesy cars. Citroën UK has said that it will prioritise courtesy cars for those ‘most in need’ but has then not specified precisely what that means. In the UK, many Citroën owners are reporting delays in getting an appointment for an airbag replacement t of as long as six months, stretching into January 2026.

Here, that seems not to be an issue. Sherdian told The Irish Times that Citroën’s dealers here now have the replacement of the dangerous airbags down to a fine art, and that in most cases an appointment should be available on a ‘next-day’ basis, or even sometimes on the same day.

In theory, Citroën’s dealers here will arrange to collect the car on a flat-bed or tow-truck, as the stop-drive order is a serious one, and it’s considered dangerous to drive these cars until the faulty airbags have been replaced. Nonetheless, it seems that some Citroën owners are ignoring this and simply driving their cars to the dealership.

A question mark remains over insurance in such circumstances. While Gowan Auto says that it’s ‘unaware of any insurance issues’, in theory, there is a legal obligation not to drive the car, and continuing to do so could invalidate your insurance and even potentially lead to a fine. Theoretically, if a car is declared unsafe to drive by its manufacturer, then under EU regulations, its insurance would be invalid. Those affected by this stop-drive order are advised to immediately contact their insurer for advice.

The repair itself takes officially less than two hours, and in some cases, Sheridan said that dealers and their technicians have refined the art of airbag replacement so that it can take mere minutes. Only a handful of bolts need to be undone, and the faulty airbags are then placed in a secure box to avoid any potential detonation or injury. In some cases, the work can be carried out at the car owner’s home.

If you’re unsure as to whether or not your car is involved in the stop-drive order, Citroën Ireland has a dedicated section of its website where you can enter your car’s Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), which is usually to be found on the passenger side of the dashboard, beneath the windscreen. You can access the dedicated web page here: https://www.Citroën.ie/maintain/recall-campaigns.html

As to those remaining drivers who continue to ignore letters informing them of the stop-drive order and asking them to bring their car in for the necessary repairs, it remains to be seen what can be done. Sheridan told The Irish Times that among the group of private Citroën importers, Gowan Auto is ahead of its targets, set by Citroën and Stellantis, for reaching people, and that a fourth round of letters will be sent out, most likely by registered post once again.

“It's 65 million vehicles around the world which have been affected by Takata” Sheridan told The Irish Times. “There are 35 car manufacturers involved, so this is a big, sizeable job to get done, and we’re well on the way to doing so, and ahead of where we need to be on the curve, just at this moment in time.”