“It's driving you crazy!”: Motorists tell of their summer hell over Takata's faulty airbag scandal

Cécilia Soller is lucky: after weeks of waiting, her vehicle will be repaired. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

Angry, worried, exhausted, and sometimes relieved, residents of Occitanie tell of their summer struggles. Midi Libre received nearly a hundred responses from residents of Occitanie after launching a call for testimonies on the Takata airbag scandal, which has been ruining the lives of tens of thousands of people since the spring.

Officially, things are following their course. In an update given at the beginning of this week, on July 22, Stellantis indicates that four months after the first recalls of Citroën C3 and DS3 equipped with defective Takata airbags, 50,000 vehicles have been repaired, out of the fleet of 600,000 cars concerned. The manufacturer, which is urging 81,000 owners concerned to take the necessary administrative steps, announces another piece of good news: two new courtesy car parks are opening in the Lyon and Toulouse areas, one week after the one in Toulouse.

For the owners concerned, some of whom are involved in a class action lawsuit, via Myleo with the team of lawyer Christophe Lèguevaques for the best known, the case is far from being heard. In this summer when they were planning vacations, trips, gardening, etc., they are living hell. “Your management is disastrous”, accused, on June 24, Marie-Amandine Stévenin, national president of UFC Que Choisir, who believes that the scandal is even more serious, 100 million Takata airbags hypersensitive to heat and humidity were installed in vehicles around the world before the Japanese company went bankrupt in 2017, and a dozen brands are concerned. Argus has taken stock of all the brands and models concerned.

Que choisir, contacted by Midi Libre, refers to the start of the school year in September for possible new developments, and Stellantis does not go beyond the official press releases. According to Auto Moto, the group is replacing faulty airbags with airbags using the same technology.

“Angry”, “worried”, “exhausted”, and sometimes “relieved”, motorists testify. Midi Libre received nearly a hundred responses from residents of Occitanie after launching a call for testimonies.

Stéphanie, Nîmes: “A knot in her stomach”

“My son, a young driver, bought a Citroën DS3 as his first vehicle, which was affected by these faulty airbag problems. When we learned about this three months ago, we immediately made an appointment online at Citroën Nîmes. When we arrived on the day, the lady informed us that there were no appointments, because we had to put together a whole file, wait to receive a code, and wait again to be summoned. Our appointment was offered by mistake… we're going to have to wait, a long time. Getting a loan vehicle is not possible. When I told her that I can't leave my son in danger with the risk of the airbag exploding at any moment, she smiled and explained that this problem mainly concerns hot countries, that she can't do anything, but “be careful anyway”…

To this day, we still haven't had a code, I've called several times, I was supposedly put on a waiting list and for more than news.

I am extremely angry, but also very worried because just yesterday (Editor's note: July 23) we saw that the Takata airbag of a Toyota had caused a death. ;It’s shameful to let people risk their lives. My son can no longer go to work without a vehicle. He uses it with a lump in his stomach every day.

Cécilia, Sète: "Finally a meeting"

"I finally got an appointment to change my airbags !" Cécilia Soller can’t believe it. This Wednesday, April 24, all's well that ends well after weeks of trial and error. A letter from Citroën dated April 30 asks him to "stop immediately"to now drive his C3, equipped with the defective parts. An almost daily battle ensued: “I received the code needed to order the airbags more than a month later, and immediately called the Citroën dealership to make the change. The person in charge of ordering the airbags was on vacation, and no one else could handle it… After sending new information requested by the garage, I followed up on June 5, 10, 17 and 20, I never received a response. I also sent registered letters to Citroën customer service in Paris and to the dealership at the beginning of July, with no response.”

On July 9, Cécilia Soller learned that only one airbag had arrived, and she would have to wait for the second. Without a loaner car, she tried, in vain, to have her faulty car taken back to buy a new C3. Failure. “I hope that the publication of this testimony can bring about positive changes”, wrote the woman from Sète a week ago, who had informed her contacts that she was in contact with the press. It's a win, after nearly three months of "online shopping", and "traveling by bike or on foot".

She will also be able to go on holiday to her family in Aude at the end of August. Phew!

Yves, Alès: “Still with a loan vehicle”

“My file was registered on May 14 in Alès, it is still pending, but I received a call last week telling me that a solution was imminent!”
In Alès, Yves Bourgade, 83, is taking his troubles patiently: “In my misfortune, I am lucky, I am no longer in an emergency”, admits the retiree, who obtained a loan vehicle on July 5, by forcing fate: “I went to my garage very regularly, I arrived at the moment when they had just received two or three vehicles”.

A relief: “Not using my car, it was impossible”.

Mireille, Palavas: “A friend of my daughter is deceased"

"I received a message this morning (Editor's note: July 24) telling me that I finally had a code number! They're going to order the airbags…" A relief, too, for Mireille Gobbi, a Palavasian, who feared that her retirement status would condemn her to be among the last to be served. “I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, after three months without a car”, hopes the Hérault woman.

She occasionally uses her C3, with a lot of apprehension each time, without minimizing the danger: “Three or four years ago, a friend of my daughter died instantly after the airbag in her car exploded. I had no idea that I would be affected one day.”

Cyril, Toulouse: “My situation is absurd”

“My situation is absurd”: Cyril, a resident of Toulouse, has no other words to describe his situation. Alerted in mid-May, he spent “numerous lunar calls to the hotline, which one day promised me a loan vehicle within an hour without ever following up, then sent me to a garage that was supposed to have vehicles available, they didn't have any".

"I had to rely on family solidarity to go and get a vehicle two hours from home to go on vacation on July 12 without breaking the bank on a last-minute car rental. I cascadingly damaged the personal lives of the relatives who are lending me this vehicle, but I couldn't cancel three weeks of rentals. At the moment, I have no solution to return from vacation. The communication from Stellantis, which says it is providing the means, is a huge joke", protests the Toulousain.

Marie, Montpellier : "It's driving you crazy !"

“The day after my request on SignalConso, the public service website for consumers, I received an email from Stellantis telling me that I had received a code at the end of June, that was impossible. I received it a week later, on July 24… In the meantime, I had obtained it by calling 0800, the airbag has been ordered, I am waiting for the appointment”, says Marie Demion, a mother from Montpellier registered in the Myleo collective procedure, who had to, in theory, “immediately stop” using her vehicle since May 21.

Her calls to 0800, “hours on the phone”, are epic: “When I get someone on the phone, because often, it hangs up or leaves you in the dark, they hang up on you after telling you “I can't hear you, ma'am”, or even, “do you have something to write down”?” And even “I found you a vehicle”. It's driving me crazy! 

"I have to take my car to work and transport my children, do my shopping, and if I rely on the mail I received, I'm putting my life and those of my children in danger. It's not very reassuring and it's guilt-inducing“, protests the Montpellier resident.

She “finds it scandalous that with this letter the company is protecting itself, passing the blame on to us, while leaving us helpless. Worse, we feel ignored".

Lucien, Ganges: “It's unacceptable”

“I registered my brother-in-law's vehicle, who was a bit lost in the procedures, on June 7th, in order to receive the code to control the airbags. To this day, I still haven't received the code. This is really not serious. My brother-in-law lives in Ganges, he needs his C3 to go to his vegetable garden… he can't take care of it anymore, I try to save what I can when I go to the Cévennes. But I live in Vic-la-Gardiole, it's not every day… Fortunately, he doesn't live very far from a supermarket. From one day to the next, his life stopped. It's a crazy story. He is completely destitute, and given his age, he doesn't want to take legal action. But this situation is unacceptable,” Lucien Thévenin is indignant.

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