MY2013 California - Passenger Side Frontal Airbag Recall (#60)

A fellow FChatter mentioned his car's airbag being serviced on a recall.

Here are the details regarding the NHTSA Recall which is for US cars but my Canadian car was also recalled and fixed. I imagine cars in other countries are also affected. The NHTSA notice affects 2013 California as well as "...458 Italia, 458 Spider, FF, and F12 Berlinetta...". The NHTSA recall number is 60 and was also referenced on my Ferrari service order but NHTSA says the Ferrari number for this recall is 63.

As usual, it's a no-charge service.

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Tom, thank you for mentioning the recall service with your '11 Cali. This 2013 Cali, 458...etc NHTSA recall is dated January 2018 and is apparently part of PHASED RECALLS which started in May 2016. They knew about this recall long ago.

I think this is awful, taking so long to notify and implement recalls. If people are unnecessarily injured or killed as a result of these delays, lawsuits would be flying.

 

Yes, of course I realize they are having problems coming up with the number of airbags and arranging for the swaps. What I am actually upset about is not being informed once the hazard was identified because there is also the possibility of an interim solution by presenting car owners with intelligent interim options. Here's what I mean.

This particular recall only concerns the passenger side airbag which when deployed the inflator can explode and injure the occupants... including the driver. Airbags can sometimes get deployed from very minor bumps. I recall a woman died in Toronto some years ago because her car's airbag was triggered by some innocuous bump at a low speed. It was not a Ferrari.

So, if your car is never or almost never driven with a passenger, the driver may simply wish to just deactivate the passenger side airbag and never be exposed to the possibility of injury from a passenger airbag inflator explosion. I know this option has been used before because many years ago I owned a beloved Dakota Sport pickup truck and its passenger side airbag was deactivated for that very reason. Dodge simply placed a sticker on the airbag to indicate it was deactivated. They eventually replaced the airbag with a proper one.

My other gripe is that if I and other affected owners were informed of the danger, we could also have decided to avoid taking passengers or warn our passengers until the airbag was replaced.