Do you think they have found all the cars that have the dodgy airbag - its been going on for 10 years isn’t it ?
Yes, it's being going on for 10 years. There are about 70 million Takata airbags in circulation, all over the world, fitted to many makes and models of car, not just Citroens. My understanding is that Takata used ammonium nitrate as the gas generator which, in damp / hot conditions, deteriorates over time and instead of "burning rapidly", to generate the gas to inflate the airbag, it just explodes, resulting in shrapnel from the casing, sometimes being fired out towards the occupant, instead of just the airbag. There have been a small number of fatalities around the world, as a result of this.
I believe there was a much earlier recall, which involved inspecting the airbag casings for traces of rust (indicating moisture) and replacing if rust was found. If no rust was found, bags of silica gel were put in or near the airbag modules to act as a desiccant. Unfortunately, on some cars, the silica worked for a while, until it had absorbed as much moisture as it could, and then the deterioration continued, hence this new recall. Takata went bust in 2017, so it's "everyone else's problem" now...
I don't believe the other airbag manufacturers round the world, have anything like sufficient capacity to make replacements for 70 million Takata airbags.
I also believe that Citroen were issued with a "do not drive" order by regulators in France. This puts them in an incredibly difficult position as it's basically the same product everywhere else. In the UK, we have a voluntary Code of Practice on vehicle safety recalls, operated by DVSA. Why this hasn't affected the (very similar parts bin cousin of the C3, the Peugeot 208), I have no idea.
There will be no trouble finding which vehicles were fitted with Takata airbags, as the manufacturers will have records of what was fitted to each vehicle.
