Back from two weeks’ ‘staycation’, the words that stood out as I returned to the news desk last Monday were ‘Takata’ and ‘Honda’. And, as the latest developments in this long-running saga occurred throughout the week, I started to think of two more words: ‘Ford’ and ‘Firestone’. Remember all that back at the beginning of this decade? If not, this 2005 story from our archives neatly summarises it.
It’s not quite the same – far fewer deaths for one thing – but we are now seeing automakers distance themselves from the supplier as Ford and Honda decided to do the NHTSA’s bidding and carry out their own expanded recalls (Toyota also did likewise in Japan) as Takata stalled, apparently unable to keep up with the demand for replacement inflators. Honda said it would look to rivals such as Autoliv for supply and that company soon confirmed it would so do.
Go deeper with GlobalData
No one, of course, will emerge unscathed from this. Takata has taken a reputational hit for sloppy manufacturing, numerous health and safety violations at a Mexican plant and come under general scrutiny for its manufacturing processes – dropping pallet loads of delicate airbag parts off forklifts at the loading bay and then not re-checking them before shipment because the under-pressure factory was too busy is not a great approach to quality supply. And Honda’s US unit has also admitted to problems with its defect reporting and documentation procedures and promised to make changes.
The Firestone debacle ended a decades-old supply agreement originally established – probably with a handshake – by the two founders of the tyre and car companies that bore their names. I wonder if Takata will win future supply contracts from Honda after all this is over – the Firestone/Ford saga went on about five years.
Elsewhere, we’ve been tracking the sad but inevitable closure of the huge Ford plant in the eastern Belgian city of Genk. Latest reports are here, here and here. Around 4,300 people are headed for immediate redundancy but there’s a glimmer of hope a couple of hundred stamping jobs might be preserved in a deal Ford is working on. A top Ford executive explained the big picture behind the Genk closure to us in an interview a couple of months ago.
Better news came in the form of November US sales and UK sales. With a cautionary note about western Europe.
Have a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
