Fiat Chrysler slowly phases out cars with troublesome Takata airbag inflators
"FCA will cease NAFTA-market production of vehicles equipped with non-desiccated ammonium-nitrate Takata airbag inflators, by next week," the company said in a statement. "Global production is expected to end by mid-September."
Non-desiccated means the inflators do not contain a moisture-mitigating material. Excessive exposure to moisture is what causes Takata's airbag inflators to deploy with enough force to turn the part to shrapnel. It appears that using a desiccant permits the inflator to function as intended.
The final FCA product to include a non-desiccated inflator is the 2016 Jeep Wrangler. Cars sold with these pieces "will be identified for customers," the automaker said. The parts are not currently subject to a recall, but they might be in the future, and buyers will be informed of this. Despite the parts being totally fine for sale, the optics aren't exactly great.
Tens of millions of inflators have been recalled in the US, and more than 10 fatalities have been linked to the faulty parts, all because Takata wanted to save a few bucks and fudged data related to potential problems with its airbag components. Think about that for a minute.
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