The head of the Motor Industry Association says if not enough people act on the airbag recall announced yesterday, it may lobby the government to force motorists into taking action.
The complusory recall affects 50,000 Takata airbag units installed in numerous car makes and models, with the units possibly exploding due to high humidity - but the risk of them doing so in New Zealand is extremely low.
Chief executive David Crawford said his organisation welcomed the move, announced yesterday by Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi, which makes a voluntary recall of Takata airbag units in many car models mandatory.
Mr Crawford, speaking this morning to TVNZ 1's Breakfast today, said "logistically it is a challenge - but we've been managing this recall on a voluntary basis for the last 2-3 years and not making as much progress as we wanted".
Kris Faafoi said hundreds of thousands of vehicles on New Zealand roads have a potentially-dangerous airbag unit.
"It gives us the ability to coordinate with government agencies and other sectors on a much better basis than we've been able to do in the last couple of years," he said.
Mr Crawford said the voluntary recall had not spurred enough affected vehicle owners into action, and the mandatory recall could also face problems.
"Some people are not responding to the letters," he said.
"It's mandatory on distributors and importers of new and used vehicles - it's still discretionary for the owner of a vehicle to bring it in.
"We'll be monitoring the recall as it progresses throughout the next 18 months and if the recall rate is still not high enough we'll be asking government to consider ban-flagging these at the next warrant of fitness or some other mechanism so they can be brought in.
"The alpha-type [airbag] is just too risky to leave in the cars and the longer they are there the more risky they become."
People can view a list of the affected makes and models at www.recalls.govt.nz.
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