KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 26 — Some Proton Perdana car owners are advised to bring their vehicles to authorised Proton service centres as soon as possible to have their Takata passenger airbags replaced. The Perdana cars affected are those built from 2012 to the end of August 2018.

"Thanks to the joint efforts of our staff and dealers, Proton managed to contact our customers and have performed the airbag inflator replacement exercise. There are 6,342 units affected and as of 18 August 2020, our service outlets have replaced 5,625 units or 87.5 per cent completion,” said Roslan Abdullah, Chief Executive Officer of Proton Edar.

However, while many Perdana owners have been contacted, only 87.5 per cent of cars have replaced their airbags. There are over 700 remaining cars that have yet to have their airbags replaced. It’s a possibility that Proton aren’t able to connect with all affected owners "due to obsolete or incomplete contact information”.

"The safety of our customers is of the utmost importance... Therefore, we would like to urge all Proton Perdana owners who have not had their passenger airbag inflators replaced to call our service centres to book an appointment as soon as possible. Replacement of the inflator will take approximately one hour and will be performed free of charge while cars built after 31 August 2018 are unaffected,” added Roslan Abdullah.

For other Proton owners, the company wants to reassure them that this doesn’t affect any other Proton model, as the airbags are supplied by a different vendor. The service fix is part of a global initiative for cars equipped with Takata airbags.

The majority of the affected Perdana cars are the 2nd generation model that’s based on the 8th generation Honda Accord. In 2019, Honda Malaysia has recalled 23,476 Honda vehicles to replace the front Takata airbag inflators. Vehicles made by 19 different automakers have also been recalled to replace Takata airbags, as some of those airbags could deploy explosively, injuring or even killing car occupants. — SoyaCincau