A woman says she cannot attend her friend’s funeral after her car was recalled without a replacement.
About 120,000 drivers in the UK have been left unable to drive their Citroens after a lethal fault with airbags prompted car giant Stellantis, which owns Citreon, to say people should stop using versions of the Citroen C3 and related DS3 altogether until fixed.
Pamela Slater, of Wincanton, Somerset, is one of those people and cannot get her car repaired until the end of August.
“I should be going to a friend’s funeral and I can’t get there now,” she said. “I was going to take a friend to a hospital, she can’t drive because of an eye problem. This is awful, I’m totally lost without a car.”
The “stop-drive” instruction issued by Stellantis, which owns Citroen, followed growing concerns about the safety of airbags fitted to these models, following a fatal accident in France last month.
It is the latest drama in the 20-year scandal over now-defunct Japanese manufacturer Takata, whose airbags were installed by nearly all the world’s leading car-makers.
“It was news to me because I hadn’t heard anything about these recalls and I was mortified,” Ms Slater said.
“I tried contacting a local garage but they were inundated, a garage in Trowbridge quoted me the end of August to get it done.
“I contacted my insurance and they said I’m not covered if I’m in an accident. I’m fortunate in that I’m retired but there must be people who are working who can’t get to work.”
Stuart Masson, a motoring journalist known as the Car Expert, said while vehicle recalls were quite common, stop-drive notices were “very rare”.
“It’s even rarer when they involve large numbers of cars, we’re talking about 120,000 in the UK, in Europe about 900,000,” Mr Masson added.
“Unsurprisingly it’s not the easiest thing to make it all fixed immediately.”
Stellantis said it had no plans to provide compensation, while adding it had “mobilised the whole company” to source the number of replacement airbags required.
A spokesperson said: “It is inevitable, with such a large number of vehicles affected, that customers will be inconvenienced in the short term.”
What is not clear is how customers should get their cars to dealerships for the repair work, as they cannot be driven. Industry experts say drivers should check with their insurers before getting behind the wheel.
The company said it was “investigating options of airbag replacement at other sites, in addition to our Citroen network, including at [the owner’s] home”.
