More than sixteen thousand Citroën drivers in the Netherlands are still waiting for a new airbag. They have been advised by the manufacturer not to drive anymore due to defective airbags, which can explode in a collision.
Replacing all 33,000 airbags will probably take weeks.
The recall applies in the Netherlands to over 33,000 Citroëns of the C3 and DS3 models built between 2009 and 2019. Citroën’s parent company Stellantis strongly advised motorists at the end of last month to park them, after a woman in France died from injuries caused by a Takata airbag.
According to Stellantis, more than 21,000 airbags have now been delivered to dealers and repairers. The company denies that there are delivery problems. “We deliver airbags daily, but it is impossible to serve everyone at the same time.”
BOVAG, the trade organization of car dealers in the Netherlands, says that between 40 and 50 percent of the cars have been made. Almost a quarter of the victims have already made an appointment with the dealer. “The situation differs greatly from dealer to dealer. They depend on delivery by Stellantis,” a spokesperson said.
‘It’s going quite fast’
The large car dealer concern Van Mossel receives about 150 airbags every day. According to director Eric Berkhof, the Citroën dealers of the concern, which are mainly located in North Holland, expect to replace the airbags in approximately 3,200 cars. This has already happened in seventeen hundred cars. Berkhof thinks he will need another 2.5 to 3 weeks for the remaining cars.
“Our workshop capacity is not the problem. The working time of such a replacement is only one hour and this is given priority,” says Berkhof. He thinks the whole operation is going quite fast. Affected motorists can also get replacement transport from the dealer, he adds. “That is then paid for by Stellantis.”
BOVAG indicates that some airbags are kept in reserve in the industry for emergency situations anyway. According to the spokesperson, victims who want to go on holiday by car soon and therefore need a new airbag quickly also make a claim on this.