10 Used Cars Hit Hardest By the Takata Airbag Scandal - The Cheat Sheet
Between 2000 and 2008, at least 8 million cars were fitted with defective air bag units built by the Takata Corporation and sold in the United States. If exposed to excess moisture, the defective airbags have the potential to deploy with excess force, and spray life-threatening shrapnel in to the car. While Takata notoriously refused to cooperate with any investigation, its airbags took lives, cost the automotive industry billions, and will go down in history as one of the biggest automotive scandals of all time. While this is good news for the automotive industry overall, it presents a major headache for used car dealers. As many as 40 million vehicles could be affected by these life-threatening airbags worldwide, but it’s estimated that 30 million cars could still be on the road that haven’t had the necessary work done to make them safe. Looking at over 19 million vehicles sold from October 2013 to February 2014, as the Takata scandal was beginning to emerge, and again from October 2014 to February 2015, the height of the recalls, iSeeCars. The price of affected cars fell twice as fast as non-affected models – an average of 7. 1%, compared to 3. 2% over the same period. While this may make some of these cars a relative steal in the used car market, it’s essential for buyers to make sure that all the necessary repairs have been made before purchasing one of these models. Source: www.cheatsheet.com
