How to find out if your car is part of the Takata airbags recall
The best way to check is by contacting an official dealer for the make of your vehicle.
You can also check the government’s recalls website.
What to do if your car is part of the recall
The vehicle manufacturer will contact you about bringing your car in for replacement airbags to be installed.
If you have any concerns about the recall in the meantime, contact an official dealer for the make of your vehicle.
Please note that if your car is part of the recall and was imported into New Zealand from Japan in 2015 or 2016, you should have the front passenger airbag checked as soon as possible. Information on this follows below.
The Takata airbags global recall could affect up to 100 million vehicles worldwide, across around 12 different vehicle manufacturers, so there are delays while replacement airbags are manufactured and replaced to appropriate standards. Many countries are facing this issue.
It’s important to note that recalls happen when there is a potential fault. Only a small percentage of the potentially faulty airbags are likely to malfunction in a crash. However, vehicle owners should act on recall notices to remove the risk, and contact an official dealer if concerned.
Our advice, and the advice from manufacturers, is that cars under this recall are safe to drive.
How to find out if your car may potentially have had its front passenger airbag disabled
Confirm it was part of the Takata airbags recall (see above for how), and
If it was imported from Japan, confirm when it was imported into New Zealand. The easiest way to do this is to check the date it was first registered in New Zealand. You can find this on the vehicle licence (rego) label on the windscreen – see the diagram below. You’re looking for this to end in /15 or /16.
What to do if you’re concerned about potentially disabled front passenger airbags
As above, note this applies if your car is part of the Takata airbags recall and was imported into New Zealand from Japan in 2015 or 2016.
Contact an official dealer for the make of your vehicle for advice on how to get your vehicle checked.
As an additional check to see if your car is affected, you can also search your licence plate at the Rightcar website to see if a note has been added about a disabled airbag. As we receive information from manufacturers where they have been able to identify which cars had airbags disconnected in Japan, we will add this information to individual vehicle records. (Note that because of the lack of information available from some manufacturers, not all cars with disabled airbags will have a note added to their Rightcar entry)
You can also ring the Transport Agency for assistance on 0800 108 809, from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.
We have issued a media release about this and put together more detailed questions and answers– we will update these as more information becomes available. We are working with vehicle manufacturers and their representatives, and importers’ representatives, to gather information.
If you have any further concerns
The best contact is an official dealer for the make of your vehicle. Links to general contact details for some of the major manufacturer are below.
However, you can also contact the Transport Agency on 0800 108 809, from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.
Contact details for manufacturers’ representatives in New Zealand include: