Are they taking advantage of an old man

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Before I take a trip to my father's Subaru dealer and raise [censored] I thought I'd ask first. My father has a 2013 Legacy, I thought it was an Impreza, lol. Anyway he got the airbag recall and dropped by the dealer to make an appointment to have it done. They told him they can't take care of it until December. Is that really what's going on with their airbag recall? It's 2019, we're talking a 2013 here. Or is Subaru taking advantage of my father and I need to go there and make the appointment for him? He called another dealer and they told him to bring it where he bought it. LOL Typical of L.I. dealers....

I got the airbag recall for my 2016 Rubicon, I haven't called to make an appointment yet, should I expect the same treatment?
 
Getting a recall notice and actually getting the part replaced are two different things. If it's the Takata airbag, there is likely still a big shortage of replacement airbags, so it can take a while before they have the parts in stock and ready to do the swap.

With my BMW, I had to wait well over a year to get it done, from the time when I received the recall notice.
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Getting a recall notice and actually getting the part replaced are two different things. If it's the Takata airbag, there is likely still a big shortage of replacement airbags, so it can take a while before they have the parts in stock and ready to do the swap.

With my BMW, I had to wait well over a year to get it done, from the time when I received the recall notice.

Wow. That sucks. I'll tell my father to wait it out then, he has no choice. I'll see what kind of story my friend tells me about my Rubicon. I know he won't play games.
 
Pete is correct, there is a huge shortage of bags, It could be a real long wait. My biggest concern would be the safety of the car which may be now as or more dangerous than no airbag, I mean its not cool getting in an accident and having shrapnel blown in your pie hole is it.
 
Took two trucks out of service due to recall notice.

Dealer had trucks all day only to flash software and say to bring trucks back late '19 when parts are available.
 
I have a 14 outback. I hadn't been to the local dealer (not where I purchased the car) in a few years. I took it in for a diagnostic check of some warning lights acting erratically. While I was there, they checked and found that the recent airbag fix (it wasn't a replacement, just a peripheral part) and an old recall of something to do with the windshield wiper motor hadn't been done.

It took a few hours between the diagnostic check and taking care of the two recalls, but it was all done. The only charge I had was for an hour of labor for the diagnostic check which fortunately found the problem eventually requiring I bring it back to replace a sensor.

I think it depends on the dealer as to whether recalls are put on the back burner, or if you get it taken care of right away with a smile. My dealer is a busy shop, it took a couple of weeks to get the appointment, but once in the shop they took care of everything including the recalls which I had not asked for in advance.
 
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The dealers get paid for warranty work (including recall) so they should be wiling to do it without an issue. But large recalls means lots of parts. You can ask the dealer why the delay.
 
I have a 2013 Outback. I got the notice in March and called the dealer the next day. My appointment, the earliest that they could book, is in mid-June.
 
There are a large number of vehicles affected and it seems like new announcements come out occasionally adding more vehicles to the list. Also, I seem to recall (no pun intended) reading that a number of vehicles which were recalled and have already been fixed are being recalled again because the replacement part has issues.

A family member with an older Toyota had to wait over a year before the car was fixed.

And when GM had their ignition key recall, I had to wait over 6 months before the parts for my Cobalt came in.

It doesn't hurt to ask the dealer, but I think it's just the situation and there's nothing that can be done but wait.
 
My Takata saga:

Recall 1: We don't have parts. Suggest no one sits in the passenger seat.
Recall 2. We have parts. Come to dealer for replacement. Made appointment and went to dealer. After waiting an hour they said the trained tech wasn't working that day. Come back. Things got heated and they gave me a loaner. Came back the next day and they said they inspected my airbags and no replacement part was required.
Recall 3: Even if passed inspection, parts need to be replaced. Took it back again and finally got it taken cared of.

Over a year for the whole thing.
 
My Audi was within a couple of days. But I was receiving notices for more than a year prior to that so maybe back then it would have taken longer.
 
My dad had to wait many months for his 07 Fusion airbag to be done..

The whole thing is rediculous and there could be lawsuits!
 
Not uncommon to have a back log on parts during a recall, even a long one. I would suggest following up from time to time because they're not real good at callbacks in my experience. Suburu would like to know if a dealer told you to go to where you originally purchased the vehicle for replacement parts. That's not how safety recalls work.
 
Originally Posted by Donald
The dealers get paid for warranty work (including recall) so they should be wiling to do it without an issue. But large recalls means lots of parts. You can ask the dealer why the delay.


I seem to recall that warranty work is paid out at a much lower labor rate than the dealer normally charges for work that the customer pays for. If correct, dealers with lots of paying work may not be so inclined to do the warranty work if they can figure out a way to avoid it. May not make for good customer relations, but keeps the revenue stream higher than it would be by doing lots of warranty work.
 
Originally Posted by andrewp1998
My dad had to wait many months for his 07 Fusion airbag to be done..

The whole thing is rediculous and there could be lawsuits!


The whole airbag recall, but especially the passenger side ones on Fords has been a giant cluster. Parts aren't always available, and when we order them we have no way to track them. They just show up with the VIN on the shipping label and we could have ordered it the day before, or 4 months ago.
 
Originally Posted by SeaJay
Originally Posted by Donald
The dealers get paid for warranty work (including recall) so they should be wiling to do it without an issue. But large recalls means lots of parts. You can ask the dealer why the delay.


I seem to recall that warranty work is paid out at a much lower labor rate than the dealer normally charges for work that the customer pays for. If correct, dealers with lots of paying work may not be so inclined to do the warranty work if they can figure out a way to avoid it. May not make for good customer relations, but keeps the revenue stream higher than it would be by doing lots of warranty work.


The amount you get per hour is lower than what a customer pays. Also the amount of hours you are paid is lower. For example, Mazda has a campaign to replace sticky dash panels on certain year Mazda 3's. This is normally an 8 or so hour job, but under the campaign pays 1.7 hours.
 
Originally Posted by demarpaint
Before I take a trip to my father's Subaru dealer and raise [censored] I thought I'd ask first. My father has a 2013 Legacy, I thought it was an Impreza, lol. Anyway he got the airbag recall and dropped by the dealer to make an appointment to have it done. They told him they can't take care of it until December. Is that really what's going on with their airbag recall? It's 2019, we're talking a 2013 here. Or is Subaru taking advantage of my father and I need to go there and make the appointment for him? He called another dealer and they told him to bring it where he bought it. LOL Typical of L.I. dealers....

I got the airbag recall for my 2016 Rubicon, I haven't called to make an appointment yet, should I expect the same treatment?


The are overbusy with calls for air bags and can only allocate portion of shop space and tech time to it. I got lucky on our 2005 Legacy and someone cancelled appointment and they had already had parts in hand. Our local dealer stated they were 5 months out and this was like a year or so ago when we had car.
 
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Originally Posted by Miller88
How is Takata still in business? Or is it a different company making the airbags now?

Car manufacturers are propping Takata up so that they can continue cranking out replacement airbags. There are no viable alternatives.

For now, car manufacturers are actually paying Takata for these replacement airbags. If they didn't, Takata would run out of money and shut down, in which case nobody would get a replacement airbag. It's a huge cluster****.
 
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