The Independent 

Monitor of Takata 

and the Coordinated 

Remedy Program

Update on the State 

of the Takata Airbag 

Recalls 

December 21, 2018

SECTION ONE

Introduction

SECTION TWO

Keys to Further Recall Success

SECTION THREE

Conclusion

APPENDICES 

Appendix 1: Fatalities

Appendix 2: Inflator Explosions
I, John D. Buretta, as Independent Monitor of Joyson Safety Systems, TK Global 

LLC (“Takata”) and the Coordinated Remedy Program (the “Monitor”), submit this report to 

describe the current state of the Takata recalls, pursuant to Paragraph 42 of the Consent Order, 

dated November 3, 2015, issued pursuant to the authority of the National Highway Traffic Safety 

Administration (“NHTSA”) and agreed to by Takata, and as amended as of May 4, 2016, and 

pursuant to the Coordinated Remedy Order, dated November 3, 2015, as amended by the Third 

Amended Coordinated Remedy Order, dated December 9, 2016 (the “ACRO”). 
i 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

I. Introduction..................................................................................................................... 1

II. Keys to Further Recall Success ......................................................................................... 3

Data Quality .............................................................................................................. 5

Segmented Analysis .................................................................................................... 7

Communications ...................................................................................................... 12

Overcoming Owner Inconvenience ......................................................................... 28

Engaging Dealers ...................................................................................................... 33

Engaging Other Third Parties ................................................................................... 37

Canvassing ............................................................................................................... 44

III. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 49

Appendix 1: Fatalities

Appendix 2: Inflator Explosions
1 

I. INTRODUCTION

This report provides an update on the present state of the Takata recalls and 

discusses in detail the keys to maximizing the number of repairs and avoiding as many further 

fatalities and injuries from defective Takata inflators as possible. The Takata recalls continue to 

pose unprecedented challenges. As of October 2018, approximately 16.7 million recalled Takata 

airbag inflators remain unrepaired, and close to 10 million more inflators will be added to the 

recalls in January 2019. As time passes, the risk the remaining unrepaired inflators pose only 

grows. More exposure over more time to high heat and humidity further degrades the Takata 

inflator’s phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate compound, making it more porous, more volatile 

and more prone to transform from a life-saving device to a life-threatening one. Since my last 

report,

1

 two additional U.S. fatalities have been confirmed, along with dozens of additional 

serious injuries caused by defective Takata airbag inflators.2 

The past year has been marked by significant, industry-wide advancements in 

tackling the Takata recalls as more vehicle manufacturers have adopted key strategies for effective 

outreach. More than 7.2 million defective Takata airbag inflators have been repaired over the 

past year—28% of all inflators repaired in the Takata recalls to date. Average completion 

percentages have increased by 30 percentage points, with many moving from 40% to 70% 

completion. Vehicle manufacturers have prioritized the very highest-risk vehicles, with many of 

these vehicles seeing the greatest progress in repairs. Among Priority Groups 1-3, which 

comprise the oldest vehicles in the highest-risk areas, the unrepaired inflator population has been 

cut in half in one year.

3

 Completion percentages for later Priority Groups have also seen positive 

trends, with vehicle manufacturers reaching higher completion percentages in shorter amounts of 

time. One affected vehicle manufacturer has already reached 90% completion for its vehicles in 

Priority Groups 7-10. 

These numbers reflect that major changes have occurred in approaching this recall. 

Sixteen affected vehicle manufacturers are now acquiring refreshed vehicle owner information 

from state Departments of Motor Vehicles and other data sources in order to better identify and 

then contact current vehicle owners. Only three manufacturers were doing so a year ago. 

Thirteen vehicle manufacturers now include Spanish translations of all important information 

points in recall outreach. Far fewer did before. Working as an integrated team with the Monitor, 

fourteen vehicle manufacturers have now piloted door-to-door canvassing in areas of high heat 

and humidity. Only two manufacturers had engaged in canvassing a year ago. Across the board, 

these canvassing efforts have been a major success. Eleven vehicle manufacturers now offer 

mobile repair service for the Takata recalls—where a dealer or third-party service technician 

arrives at the vehicle owner’s home to complete the Takata recall repair on site. Six 

 

1 The State of the Takata Airbags Recalls Report may be viewed at 

https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/the_state_of_the_takata_airbag_recallsreport_of_the_independent_monitor_112217_v3_tag.pdf. 

2 For further details on the reported fatalities and field explosions to date, see Appendix 1 and 2. 

3 This reduction in unrepaired inflators has resulted from inflator repairs and accounting for vehicles that have been scrapped, stolen, exported or 

determined to be unreachable for other reasons.
2 

manufacturers offered limited mobile repair service a year ago. Several vehicle manufacturers are 

also doing more to encourage franchised dealers to engage vehicle owners directly about the 

Takata recalls. 

In another positive shift, manufacturers are beginning to spearhead Takata recall 

efforts together, engaging with the Monitor and NHTSA in developing joint communications, 

collectively soliciting assistance from state Departments of Motor Vehicles and participating in 

working groups aimed at addressing industry-wide barriers to recall completion. These collective 

efforts have yielded innovation, greater efficiency, and thousands of repairs.

There remains a challenging road to travel ahead and the clock is ticking for 

drivers and passengers with defective inflators still in their vehicles. Lagging automakers—there

definitely still are a few—must intensify their efforts to catch up with higher performers. All 

manufacturers that have seen past success must continually improve their methods to address the 

most challenging vehicle populations. Repair rates in earlier Priority Groups—which contain 

some of the oldest and most dangerous vehicles—have slowed, while repair rates among more 

recently launched Priority Groups are beginning to show some signs of stagnation as campaigns 

mature beyond a 60% completion threshold. 

But the path to overcoming these hurdles continues to come into clearer focus. 

Affected vehicle manufacturers that have embraced frequent data refreshes from multiple data 

sources, used clear and high-impact multi-channel communications, robustly addressed 

inconvenience in the repair process, undertaken comprehensive dealer engagement strategies and 

engaged in escalation strategies such as canvassing have been able to maintain rising completion 

rates even among these older vehicles. And there is yet hope for further improvements. Lagging 

manufacturers can catch up, greater industry collaboration can be achieved, and relationships with 

key third-party stakeholders—franchised dealerships, used car dealers, independent repair facilities, 

auction houses, insurers, and others—can be further cultivated to improve performance. 

The challenge of the Takata recalls is not just the sheer number and variety of 

vehicles at risk and the deadly nature of the defect, but also the reality that the danger is greatest 

in the oldest and hardest-to-reach vehicles. The lessons that affected vehicle manufacturers have 

gleaned already through the improvements achieved this past year in scaling and coordinating 

outreach efforts—both those designed to find and motivate owners of the highest risk vehicles and 

those aimed at improving repair rates generally—will undoubtedly be useful beyond the Takata 

recalls. As the automotive industry becomes increasingly reliant on extensive supply chains for 

modern vehicles, and vehicles become more sophisticated and technology-dependent than they 

were 20 years ago, the strategies being developed during the Takata recalls will lay a solid 

foundation for addressing future automotive recalls with greater speed and efficiency.


5 

Data Quality

Accurate vehicle owner information is necessary to ensure that the recall outreach 

is actually being received by the current vehicle owner. Data associated with older vehicles is 

often inaccurate because these vehicles tend to change ownership frequently and may be owned 

by individuals who have less stable living arrangements, resulting in more frequent address 

changes that are not promptly updated at state DMVs. Owners of these older vehicles often lack 

relationships with franchised dealers and thus do not share their current contact information with 

dealers to permit easy notification of safety recalls. 

Historically, affected vehicle manufacturers have relied on state DMV registration 

information to gather contact information for recall outreach. DMV registration data is useful in 

the early stages of a recall and generally permits vehicle manufacturers to achieve completion 

percentages from 50% to 60% when used in combination with effective communications. 

However, for the remaining pool of unrepaired vehicles, DMV information is often likely to be 

inaccurate. Owners may have moved without updating their DMV registration information,

deliberately or accidentally provided incorrect information to the DMV or purchased their vehicle 

through private sales or local auctions without updating the DMV registration. Some vehicles 

may also have been repossessed by insurers and are transiting the auction and restoration process, 

causing registration information to be outdated until a new owner registers it with a DMV. 

Other vehicles may have been totaled or scrapped. To make sure the actual owners of these 

remaining unrepaired vehicles are receiving the recall outreach being sent to them, and to identify 

those vehicles that are no longer on the road, supplementing DMV information from additional 

sources is critical. 

During a door-to-door canvassing initiative in Houston and South Florida 

conducted this past year targeting older vehicles subject to the Takata recalls, the Monitor found 

that nearly 50% of vehicle owner registration information did not accurately identify the correct 

owner of the vehicle—in 80% of these instances, the vehicle had been sold, while in 20%, the 

vehicle owner had moved.

Frequent refreshing of contact information for older recalled vehicles is also 

important. For example, one affected vehicle manufacturer received an updated DMV data set 

and found that 30% of its owner information had changed over the last year. Likewise, the 

Monitor conducted a data append pilot for older, high-risk vehicles on behalf of two vehicle 

manufacturers and found that when a new address was identified, 73% of the time it was because 

the vehicle had a new owner. 

To ensure recall outreach is actually reaching affected vehicle owners, vehicle 

manufacturers should deploy comprehensive data strategies such as those summarized in Figure 2 

below. 










16 

Affected Vehicle Owner Survey 

The need for clear communications using high impact graphics and wording was 

further observed in an October 2018 survey by the Monitor of affected vehicle owners. This 

survey aimed to assess the efficacy of current recall communications strategies, and surveyed 262 

drivers of vehicles made by six different manufacturers. The survey targeted individuals who had 

open Takata recalls and owned vehicles that were at least 10 years old as of the time of the survey. 

Most respondents owned vehicles in Priority Groups 1-3, had owned their vehicles for five years 

or longer and were not the original owner of the vehicle. Most respondents also said their vehicle 

registrations were current. Many survey respondents resided in areas of high heat and humidity.

Survey results illustrated that communications using high impact words and phrases 

motivate affected vehicle owners to act. Respondents expressed that outreach materials should 

describe the recall as “urgent”, “mandatory” and an “emergency”, describe the inflator as 

“dangerously defective” rather than simply “defective” and describe the result of defective 

inflators exploding as an “explosion” that sends “sharp metal fragments” through the vehicle. 

Survey respondents also expressed a preference for language that is clear, direct and avoids abstract 

terms in describing the recall.

Affected Vehicle Manufacturer Improvements in Communications

The use of clear, frequent, multi-channel communications has become standard 

across affected vehicle manufacturers, with all but one of the large vehicle manufacturers 

implementing this practice. Many vehicle manufacturers also have been escalating their 

communications using high-intensity imagery, varying the channels and messengers for

communications, sending more bilingual content and personalizing the content of outreach. 

Manufacturers that have employed these strategies have seen substantial increases in completion 

percentages. 

High-intensity Imagery

As recall campaigns mature, it is important to escalate outreach to motivate action 

by vehicle owners who did not respond to earlier forms of outreach. As to this more challenging 

group of owners, many affected vehicle manufacturers have started using communications with 

higher-impact imagery, such as graphics highlighting prior fatalities and injuries. 

Feedback from vehicle owner focus groups over the past year has confirmed the 

efficacy of high-impact imagery. For example, one vehicle manufacturer tested different 

communication templates in focus groups of affected vehicle owners. These focus groups 

identified as most impactful templates with intense imagery and less text, such as those set forth in 

Figure 11. 






23 

Figure 17

Figure 18 below shows another example of a sticky note included in an affected 

vehicle manufacturer’s letter. This note allows the vehicle owner to write down the recall repair 

appointment date. 

Figure 18
24 

Community Amplification

Pilot efforts over the past year have demonstrated that raising awareness within 

communities is an effective tool in encouraging recall repairs, particularly when done in 

conjunction with other forms of frequent, multi-channel outreach. A Monitor-led grassroots 

outreach pilot titled “Airbag Recall: Operation Find & Fix” has targeted zip codes with high 

concentrations of higher-risk vehicles in three higher-risk geographies—the San Fernando Valley 

in the Los Angeles area; Fort Lauderdale in the Southern Florida area; and Houston, Texas. The 

program is designed to spread awareness through community-based channels, leveraging

community partners—such as civic leaders, local government agencies, cultural centers and faith 

organizations—to engage and mobilize their constituencies to check their vehicles and schedule 

repairs.

During the grassroots pilot, field personnel interacting with vehicle owners and 

local stakeholders observed that:

• Language matters. Vehicle owners who were not native English speakers often

were confused about recall notifications. When engaged in a language in which 

they were proficient, they better understood the issue and the necessary next steps.

• Messengers matter. Many affected vehicle owners targeted by the pilot had 

received prior outreach from vehicle manufacturers, yet did not have their vehicles 

repaired until they were urged to do so by a trusted local community member. In 

in-person interactions, many of these vehicle owners expressed that they would 

have been motivated to have the repair done earlier if they learned of it from 

community-based sources such as family, mechanics, insurance agents or franchised 

or independent dealers with whom they have a relationship.

• Frequency matters. When field personnel were able to interact directly with 

affected vehicle owners on a daily basis, they were able to more fully discuss the 

urgency of the Takata recalls, address misperceptions, identify barriers to repair 

completion and follow-up on repair appointments to ensure vehicle owners 

completed the repair.

• Traditional recall outreach may be insufficient. Many affected vehicle 

owners did not remember receiving recall notifications and had limited awareness 

of the urgency of the Takata recalls, despite vehicle manufacturers having made 

multiple outreach attempts to vehicle owners in these zip codes.

• Community events provide gathering places where field personnel can 

identify multiple unrepaired vehicles. Events such as swap meets, movie 

nights, school VIN checks and community festivals are efficient locations to search 

for and identify unrepaired vehicles. Field personnel consistently found that 

10%-15% of all vehicles at these events had open Takata recalls.

The Monitor also engaged local news media through a series of outreach efforts 

that complemented the grassroots events and community initiatives. During press conferences in 




29 

Mobile Repair

During focus groups and in-depth interviews conducted by the Monitor in 

connection with a coordinated canvassing pilot, most affected vehicle owners expressed that their 

primary reason for not completing the repair before being canvassed was that they did not have 

time to bring their vehicles into a dealership. For these same owners, and many others who had 

not been responsive to prior outreach, the availability of free mobile repair service was essential in 

motivating them to schedule and follow through with a repair appointment. For example, one 

interviewee cited his familial obligations as a single parent who worked long hours as the 

impediment to his scheduling a dealership repair, but when he learned that a mobile repair service 

could come to his home to complete the repair for free, he was willing to have his vehicle 

repaired. For owners who used a mobile repair service, many identified it as “easy” and 

“hassle-free”. 

Canvassers from the coordinated canvassing pilot—in which seven affected vehicle 

manufacturers offered mobile repair services either through a dealership or a third party—reported

that the ability to offer mobile repair enhanced their ability to schedule repair appointments and 

increased the likelihood that the appointments would be converted to completed repairs. In 

Monitor-led focus groups, approximately 85% of vehicle owners who had their vehicles repaired 

through mobile service said that they would prefer mobile repair for future recalls.

In focus groups conducted by affected vehicle manufacturers in July and August 

2018, participants overwhelmingly preferred mobile repair service over a cash incentive for the 

completion of a Takata repair at a dealership, and noted that vehicle manufacturers’ offer of 

mobile service highlighted the urgency of the repair. 

Figure 24 compares the rates at which repairs were completed when mobile repair 

was available versus when it was not for one affected vehicle manufacturer that participated in the 

coordinated canvass. The orange bar shows the rate at which repairs were made when the address 

was correct and the canvasser spoke to someone who could reasonably schedule an appointment 

when mobile repair was not available. The blue bar shows the same rate after this vehicle 

manufacturer began to offer mobile repair. The repair rate was 35% higher when mobile repair 

was offered. 



33 

requested that their vehicle be towed to and from the dealership for approximately 40% of the 

repairs that were completed. 

Twelve affected vehicle manufacturers offer free towing to dealerships in certain 

circumstances. Though all vehicle manufacturers can benefit from this, certain luxury brands 

have communicated this as a preferred option for their vehicle owners, as they have smaller dealer 

networks, repair times are often longer, there is a higher risk of damaging a vehicle through a 

mobile repair given some vehicle configurations and often the vehicle owner prefers to have 

additional services performed while the vehicle is at a dealer. The owners of these vehicles often

also have more than one vehicle available, do not use the vehicle daily and are not as 

inconvenienced by being without their unrepaired vehicles for an extended period of time.

Loaner Vehicles

Nearly all affected vehicle manufacturers have made loaner vehicles available to 

some degree to vehicle owners completing Takata recall repairs and, in some instances, vehicle 

manufacturers have offered free long-term vehicle rentals due to parts constraints. Many affected 

vehicle manufacturers have also analyzed dealers’ use of the manufacturer’s existing loaner vehicle 

programs to try to enhance use of the programs. For example, one vehicle manufacturer now 

reminds dealers of available loaner vehicles when discussing missed opportunity reports—instances 

in which vehicle owners have visited a franchised dealer when parts were available but not 

completed the recall repair—to highlight the importance of dealers properly communicating the 

availability of this service. Another vehicle manufacturer has noted that during periods in which 

it has increased dealer incentives connected to completing Takata recall repairs, dealers have used 

loaner vehicle programs to motivate vehicle owners to schedule and follow through with repair 

appointments.

Communicating the Availability of Services to Address Inconvenience

Notwithstanding affected vehicle manufacturers’ offering services that minimize 

owner inconvenience, there is still much room for progress in clearly communicating the 

availability of and broadly implementing such services. Some manufacturers have not yet 

effectively conveyed these programs to vehicle owners. Many manufacturers that have 

communicated the existence of these programs have not done so clearly or prominently. Some 

have used small font that may be lost in the rest of a communication’s content. Franchised dealers 

and affected vehicle manufacturer call centers can more clearly and readily communicate the 

availability of services designed to alleviate owner inconvenience. 

Engaging Dealers

Franchised dealers continue to be critical players in successful recall strategies. 

When affected vehicle manufacturers engage franchised dealers, dealers tend to become more 

proactive in their recall outreach efforts, more likely to assist vehicle owners in overcoming 

barriers to recall completion, more likely to take advantage of services to overcome owner 

inconvenience, more likely to discuss challenges and best practices—often gleaned from 

interactions with their local communities—with the vehicle manufacturer and less likely to 

miscommunicate parts availability. 




38 

independent repair facilities and automobile insurers have unique relationships with vehicle 

owners that can be leveraged to serve as trusted communications channels for recall outreach, 

especially for owners of older vehicles who do not have an active relationship with a franchised 

dealer. Independent repair facilities and insurers also may maintain contact information for 

affected vehicle owners that can be more current than DMV registration information. 

Historically, a common barrier to successfully engaging third-party stakeholders 

was the inability to check a large number of VINs efficiently. In March 2018, a partnership of 

industry trade groups launched the Vehicle Recall Search Service, also known as the “batch 

lookup” tool, which allows users to search for open recalls on up to 10,000 VINs through a single 

search. Equipped with this tool, third parties can now check entire inventories of vehicles or 

vehicle owner customer lists for open recalls quickly and efficiently. Affected vehicle 

manufacturers can increase their repair rates by encouraging third parties to use the batch lookup 

tool, advise customers of open recalls and engage their customers about the urgency of repairing 

their defective Takata airbag inflators. 

Engaging State Departments of Motor Vehicles 

State DMVs can serve as highly effective messengers for recall outreach. 

Communications from a state DMV are less likely to be perceived as “junk mail” and thus more 

likely to be opened and read by affected vehicle owners. 

Many state DMVs had in the past been hesitant to engage on the Takata recalls 

with individual affected vehicle manufacturers. The vehicle manufacturing community has 

recently engaged DMVs more efficiently, using a single vehicle manufacturer representative to

streamline the process for outreach initiatives. Coordination is occurring across 16 vehicle 

manufacturers to create and approve informational content, posters, images and videos that can be 

distributed to DMV offices. Many state DMVs are now helping spread the message to vehicle 

owners, variously posting videos and Takata-related information on websites, coordinating as to 

mailings to vehicle owners, using emissions and inspection stations to check vehicles for open 

recalls and communicating with residents about the Takata recalls through social media.

This is an unprecedented development. Recent state DMV outreach letters have 

doubled, and in certain instances tripled, repair rates. Figures 32 and 33 below show the 

immediate impact on repairs in Louisiana and New York (blue for each) as compared to repairs in

other states within the same Zone5 but with no DMV letters sent (orange for each). 

 

5 The United States and Territories are divided into Zones A, B and C under the ACRO, based on the relative levels of high heat and humidity in 

those areas, which affects the risk of inflator explosion.

40 

Engaging Independent Repair Facilities (IRFs)

Independent repair facilities—including service and repair facilities and collision 

shops—are trusted points of contact for many affected vehicle owners who lack established 

relationships with franchised dealers and can play an important role in vehicle owner notification 

efforts. Over the past year, many vehicle manufacturers have begun engaging with IRFs, both 

through individual efforts and in collaboration with one another and the Monitor. For example, 

one vehicle manufacturer has been leveraging its existing relationships with its parts distribution 

software provider to identify vehicles at IRFs with open recalls. The manufacturer has identified 

more than 12,500 IRFs subscribed to this service, which sends the IRF a message indicating that a 

particular vehicle has an open recall when other parts for the vehicle are ordered. The program 

includes a tracking mechanism and incentive for the IRF if the customer completes the repair 

within 30 days of notification. Another vehicle manufacturer has been working closely with its 

wholly owned automotive parts brand, which maintains relationships with more than 15,000 

IRFs that are preferred automotive service centers for the vehicle manufacturer. The vehicle 

manufacturer distributed a letter and an informational poster (on behalf of all vehicle 

manufacturers) about the recalls to be displayed at the IRF facilities. This vehicle manufacturer is 

also developing universal recall outreach materials, neutral as to vehicle make/model, to distribute 

to a broad range of IRFs. Another vehicle manufacturer is taking steps to involve dealers in the 

IRF outreach process to facilitate greater coordination between them, including providing a realtime notification to a local dealer to inform it when a vehicle with an open Takata recall has been 

identified at a local IRF. Several other vehicle manufacturers have also encouraged franchise 

dealers to develop relationships with IRFs so that IRFs will notify dealers of these customers on 

their own. 

There is more work to be done to successfully engage IRFs. Although many 

vehicles are passing through IRFs, recall repair conversion rates are still low. Affected vehicle 

manufacturers have estimated that millions of vehicles with open Takata recalls are visiting IRFs 

each year, but fewer than 20% of these vehicles are repaired within 90 days after an IRF is 

notified of an open Takata recall for a vehicle visiting its facility. Given these statistics, the 

Monitor sought to better understand the barriers IRFs face in communicating with vehicle 

owners about their open recalls. In April and July 2018, the Monitor, with the assistance from 

two industry associations representing IRFs, distributed two surveys to more than 715 IRFs across 

48 states, and included independent mechanics, auto-body repair facilities and collision facilities. 

Results of these surveys are set forth in Figure 34, and indicate that while many IRFs understand 

and appreciate the urgency of the Takata recalls, various constraints have inhibited effective 

communication with customers.

42 

their insurers, viewing such notifications as more legitimate because insurance companies have a 

vested interest in safety. 

Over the past year, several vehicle manufacturers have made substantial efforts to 

engage insurance companies. In the fourth quarter of 2017, one affected vehicle manufacturer 

was able to leverage its relationship with an insurance company to send co-branded recall 

notification emails to vehicle owners. The owners were identified through both the vehicle 

manufacturer’s records and the insurance provider’s records. Completion percentages were 

substantially higher (33% higher) among vehicle owners who received emails sent by the 

insurance company as compared to vehicle owners who received emails sent by vehicle 

manufacturers. In July 2018, another vehicle manufacturer worked with the same insurance 

carrier to send a Takata recall notification letter to vehicle owners using the insurer’s contact 

information. Even though this communication was not branded as from the insurance carrier, 

20% of the population that received these letters completed their recall repair within 90 days of 

the mailing—a significant increase. 

Many insurance companies, however, continue to cite concerns regarding legal 

risks or liabilities associated with sending recall notifications and potential impacts on their brands 

as impediments to assisting affected vehicle manufacturers. Vehicle manufacturers and the 

Monitor will continue to communicate with automobile insurance companies, and their industry 

associations, to seek to identify ways to overcome these barriers and explore opportunities for 

recall engagement.

Engaging Auctions

When vehicles are processed through auction houses and sold to buyers such as 

salvage lots, recyclers, used car dealers, businesses or government agencies, registration data 

associated with the vehicles often is not updated for a substantial period of time. As a result, 

manufacturer outreach often does not reach the current owner for these vehicles. 

Historically, affected vehicle manufacturers did not engage auction houses and 

some underestimated the volume of vehicles moving through auctions. Auction houses had also

in the past expressed reluctance to assist vehicle manufacturers without any mechanism to search 

large numbers of VINs for open recalls efficiently. Over the past year, vehicle manufacturers have 

made progress in developing strategies to effectively engage auction houses, and the batch lookup 

tool has permitted these auction houses that search VINs for open recalls to do so more 

efficiently.

One affected vehicle manufacturer has recently developed a pilot process at one 

auction facility. In the pilot, the auction house checks its incoming vehicles for open Takata 

recalls and notifies the manufacturer of any open recalls in its inventory. The manufacturer then 

contacts the vehicle seller to seek permission to repair the vehicle. If the seller permits the vehicle 

to be repaired, the manufacturer uses a mobile repair service at the auction site. If the seller does 

not permit the vehicle to be repaired, the manufacturer notifies the vehicle’s buyer of the open 

Takata recall and seeks consent from the buyer to repair the vehicle before it leaves the auction. 

If the buyer does not permit the vehicle to be repaired at that time, the manufacturer updates its 

vehicle-owner contact information for that VIN to reflect the new ownership. Thus far, the

44 

observed for any unique recall outreach tactic and is particularly valuable in reaching vehicles for 

which registration information would likely be inaccurate. Though finding used vehicles listed 

for sale has proven to be an effective means of locating unrepaired vehicles, scaling these programs 

remains a challenge as independent dealers are an unconsolidated group. In order to scale such 

programs, affected vehicle manufacturers should develop systems to promptly share identified 

listings and related contact information with local franchised dealers or mobile repair vendors, 

who should, in turn, have the resources to arrange for a repair to be completed at the seller’s 

location. If the vehicle has already been sold, franchised dealers and mobile repair vendors should

have a system in place to provide new owner contact information to the affected vehicle 

manufacturer to continue outreach. 

Canvassing 

Vehicle-owner canvassing continues to be a highly effective outreach strategy for 

later stages of a recall campaign where the remaining vehicle owners have been unresponsive to 

prior outreach. The past year has been marked by a significant industry shift toward canvassing, 

with 13 vehicle manufacturers engaging in canvassing pilots either individually or in conjunction 

with other vehicle manufacturers and the Monitor.

Canvassing Initiatives

In February 2018, a number of affected vehicle manufacturers engaged in a phased 

canvassing pilot led by the Monitor in Houston and South Florida. The pilot began with three 

vehicle manufacturers canvassing in Houston, and grew to 12 by the last phase of the canvass in 

South Florida. This was the first time in the history of vehicle recalls that vehicle manufacturers 

canvassed vehicle owners in collaboration with one another.

The zip codes canvassed in the pilot were targeted based on their high density of 

older, unrepaired vehicles across multiple brands and demographics that posed particularly high 

barriers to recall completions—such as fewer English-speaking residents, more rental housing units

and lower per capita income levels. Between one and three weeks in advance of the first knock 

on the vehicle owner’s door, the affected vehicle manufacturers sent canvass pre-mailers—

mailings requiring signature upon receipt—to each vehicle owner. These pre-mailers explained 

that canvassers would be knocking on doors in the area to assist with scheduling repair 

appointments, described what canvassers would be wearing (including an image of the shirt worn 

by the canvassers), and included a phone number that vehicle owners could call to schedule an 

appointment on their own ahead of the canvass. The pre-mailers were bilingual, with one side in 

English and the other in the next most prevalent language spoken in the relevant zip code. Over 

the course of these canvassing pilots, 5,120 vehicles were targeted, 1,633 repair appointments 

were scheduled—representing 84% of all targeted vehicles for which there was accurate contact 

information—and 1,488 vehicles were repaired.

Four affected vehicle manufacturers have independently conducted canvassing

initiatives or expanded existing canvassing efforts over the past year. One vehicle manufacturer 

expanded its national canvassing to include all vehicles in Priority Groups 1-3, prompted by its 

prior success in canvassing a subset of high risk vehicles. Two other vehicle manufacturers have 

begun canvassing their highest risk vehicles in select metropolitan areas, with a focus on areas with 

high heat and absolute humidity. At the end of January 2018, a fourth affected vehicle 



48 

recalls and news outlets have easier points of access for stories that become more newsworthy as 

more manufacturers participate.
49 

III. CONCLUSION

This past year has been marked by more vehicle manufacturers adopting 

sophisticated outreach techniques, the entire industry engaging in unprecedented collaboration to 

identify best practices to maximize repair rates with cost efficiency and drastic improvements in 

repair rates for the highest-risk vehicles. But much work remains to be done. Manufacturers 

should continue to implement the key strategies for recall success, work to develop new strategies 

aimed at tackling the complex challenges presented by the Takata recalls and collaborate even 

more with one another to maximize the efficiency and efficacy of recall efforts. 
APPENDIX 1: FATALITIES

Confirmed U.S. Fatalities