Thousands of British motorists are unable to drive popular car model after urgent airbag warning

By Editor Robert Folker

Thousands of British motorists are unable to drive popular car model after urgent airbag warning

More than an estimated 100,000 motorists have been left unable to drive their cars after an urgent warning over a potential lethal fault with airbags.

Drivers of the popular Citroen C3 and the related DS3 – built from 2009 and 2016 – have been told to stop using their cars until they are fixed.

The ‘stop-drive’ instruction from car giant Stellantis came after concerns had been raised over the safety of airbags fitted to these models following a fatal accident in France last month.

Stellantis said it was ‘inevitable’ that customers would be inconvenienced, as a number of owners have told the BBC they should expect long waits to get their cars fixed.

While dozens of motorists have complained about Stellantis’ poor communication and mixed messages from Citroen and DS dealerships.

Lisa Shackleton, a 69-year-old from Hull, owns a 2014 Citroen DS3 and says she needs her car to take her elderly husband to specialist medical appointments.

She has also booked a holiday in a cottage three hours away to be close to her daughter, who is undergoing chemotherapy.

‘I’ve tried to get the car fixed, but as I didn’t get to know about the recall soon enough, the earliest it can be done is the end of July,’ she said.

‘It’s booked in at a dealership in York, and that’s an hour’s drive away.’

Another motorist claimed that she was not able to book a repair until January next year.

Stellantis said it was ‘working to maximise’ the number of vehicles it could repair each day, with priority given to those with urgent needs.

However, it said it had no plans to provide compensation, adding it had ‘mobilised the whole company’ to source replacement airbags.

A spokesperson said: ‘It is inevitable, with such a large number of vehicles affected, that customers will be inconvenienced in the short term.’

The company added it was ‘investigating options of airbag replacement at other sites, in addition to our Citroen network, including at [the owner’s] home’.

One of the defective airbags is said to have led to the death of woman in Reims earlier this month after she swerved in her C3 to avoid hitting an HGV but collided with a safety barrier. It is said to be the second fatal incident recorded in France linked to the deadly airbags.

Following the incident, French officials increased pressure on Stellantis to remove remaining affected models from the road, with around 30 per cent of C3s and DS3s in the country believed to still have the defective devices in place.

Stellantis UK says it is of ‘paramount importance’ that owners of Citroen C3s and DS3 in Britain who may have changed either their address or contact details update this information with the DVLA to ensure the car maker can make contact to have their cars rectified as soon as possible.

Last week, French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot called for all C3 and DS3 models with Takata airbags to be pulled off the road in the country with immediate effect following the fatal incident, which took place on 11 June.

According to Radio France Internationale (RFI), the 37-year-old woman died after the airbag in her 2014 Citroen C3 exploded when the car scraped a motorway barrier after she had taken evasive action to try to avoid a lorry.

Metal fragments from the exploding airbag struck her in the face. A teenage passenger was also injured, according to the report.

Stellantis said it had sent the woman a registered letter on 20 May warning her about the airbag, but the address was incorrect, and the letter was returned.

Some 70 per cent of these cars registered in France are yet to have the faulty airbags replaced, with Citroen finding it difficult to contact some owners.

The order relates to all second-generation Citroen C3s, which were manufactured between 2009 and 2016, first-generation Citroen DS3s produced between 2009 and 2016, and DS3s later sold under the DS Automobiles brand – simply called DS3 – up to 2019.

The Takata airbag recall is by far the world’s biggest vehicle call back of all time, as well as the largest scale safety recall the automotive sector has ever seen.

Potential faults were first raised in 2006, when Takata officials said some of its airbag inflators expanded with too much force, sending metal shrapnel into cars, posing massive risk to the health of the driver and occupants.

Owners of Citroens with an outstanding recall alert must register their vehicle for a repair as soon as possible either online or by calling the company’s recall helpline on 0800 917 9285, or by phoning Citroen customer care on 0800 093 9393.

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