Chrysler Expands Takata Airbag Recall
Chrysler is expanding its recall of older pickup trucks at the urging of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), although the government agency still doesn’t think its enough.
Affected by this recall are about 149,150 Dodge Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 pickups from the 2003 model year. Originally, Chrysler limited its airbag recall to Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands because the humidity in these locations was believed to be the cause of the issue. Now, the company is expanding it to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan, and the Virgin Islands.
NHTSA still doesn’t believe this is enough, as this new recall covers only one type of airbag out of two different kinds used by Chrysler. “Chrysler’s latest recall is insufficient, doesn’t meet our demands, and fails to include all inflators covered by Takata’s defect information report,” the agency said in a statement. “NHTSA will determine next steps and take appropriate actions to ensure Chrysler acts to protect its customers.”
On the other side, Chrysler issued a statement saying, “the company is unaware of any related injuries or accidents involving these inflators in the affected vehicles. Nor has Chrysler Group observed failures in laboratory testing of its air-bag modules.”
Chrysler says that customers will be notified of the issued starting on Jan. 19, 2015.
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Stephen covers all of the day-to-day events of the industry as the News Editor at AutoGuide, along with being the AG truck expert. His truck knowledge comes from working long days on the woodlot with pickups and driving straight trucks professionally. When not at his desk, Steve can be found playing his bass or riding his snowmobile or Sea-Doo. Find Stephen on <A title="@Selmer07 on Twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/selmer07">Twitter</A> and <A title="Stephen on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/117833131531784822251?rel=author">Google+</A>
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