Contacting Faulty Takata Airbag Owners a Daunting Task for Honda

Admittedly, I’ve stayed away from the Takata airbag debacle for much of 2016, unfortunately, so has an estimated 330,000 Honda car and light truck owners. Now, the U.S. federal government is pushing Honda to amplify the search, the problem at hand is daunting.

With Honda being one of the longest living brands on the road today, it’s mechanical reliability and multi generational, hand-me down popularity often leads to many previous owners on the way to the crusher -- the problem at hand is one of locating the current owner at risk.

Safety Chief: Honda must do more to track down owners

*“Honda must do more to track down owners of 300,000 cars with highly dangerous Takata air bag inflators and make sure they are repaired,” the nation’s top auto safety regulator said Wednesday.

Mark Rosekind, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the agency has talked to Honda about hiring private investigators to track down owners, sending notices in different languages, or even taking service trucks into neighborhoods to repair cars on the spot.

“There’s a whole series of things that we want to see,” Rosekind said at an auto industry parts supplier conference Wednesday in Detroit. “It’s just not happening fast enough for anybody.” Torque News' Mark Stern reports on the latest Takata related death by airbag here. To date, no fewer than 69,000,000 airbag inflators (various car brands) in the U.S. remain under recall, with a mere 11.4 million repaired to date.

Do you own a recalled Honda car or light truck? It’s not that tough of a task to find out. Please check Honda’s recall hotline here.

* CBS Money Watch 2016