5 ms·

That's not tesla exclusive. My dad's been waiting 3 months for a replacement airbag for his 2008 lexus. They were one of the ones takata (sp?) recalled but can'

That's not tesla exclusive. My dad's been waiting 3 months for a replacement airbag for his 2008 lexus. They were one of the ones takata (sp?) recalled but can't make enough replacements.

chrisper 10y ago
This seems to be a circumstantial issue that is probably not the norm. Kind of like a special case!
davidf18 10y ago
Sorry to hear about the 3 month delay and provides some insight in the construction of luxury cars at least Lexus. Auto manufacturers were warned that the propellant for the airbags was dangerous and were warned by other airbag vendors who refused to use it to save a few dollars per airbag and lost the contract to the Japanese airbag vendor. I wonder if other luxury brands such as BMW, Mercedes, Audi, used these types of airbags. I'm guessing not.
- davidf18 10y ago
  Well, I was wrong. Here is a list of cars effected with recalls for using the "save a few dollars" airbag using a propellant that was known ahead of time to be problematic. http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/news/takata-airbag-recall-list-cars-article-1.2602999 http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/news/takata-airbag-recall-l... Brands include: BMW, Mercedes, Land Rover, Jaguar, Audi, Lexus,.... These companies sell themselves as luxury brands and their cars are very expensive, but it seems clear that the MBAs and bean counters are running these companies and not engineers and car designers. This is my HN submission of a NY Times story on the topic of the airbag recall. One can read how the auto manufacturers deliberately put their customers at risk to save a few dollars per automobile. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12367031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12367031 The question I have is since it seems clear that engineers don't get to decide the safety of the car design and proper engineering in these luxury brands, how do we trust these luxury car manufacturers to even allow the engineers to design the car that they think is best and not the bean counters?
- el_benhameen 10y ago
  I think this is a Takata (or perhaps Toyota, which owns Lexus) thing, not a luxury car thing. I waited the same three months for a new airbag for my Corolla.
Cookingboy 10y ago
The Takata global airbag recall is a big exception. It affects many (most?) major automakers. Lexus had no control over the availability of spare parts in this case.
- ploxiln 10y ago
  Of course they "had control". They could have evaluated airbags and suppliers better, they could have made sure they had two different suppliers they could use for any particular model, or alternatively that they have plenty of spares. This is commonly done for many kinds of components. I happen to be more familiar with computers of course, and it's commonly done for SSDs, batteries, screens, and more.
  - cstejerean 10y ago
    Having plenty of spares doesn't help when the entire product line gets recalled. That's not a thing you plan for when buying spares.
    - ploxiln 10y ago
      I don't mean a couple of spares, I mean a warehouse good for a year (thus "plenty"). Or, multiple suppliers. There are multiple options that can work, but you have to do one correctly. I'm particularly bothered by throwing hands up and saying "it's not our fault, it's because of a problem at X, it can't be helped", where X is Microsoft, or Oracle, or Fujitsu, or Samsung, or whatever. It can be helped. Yes, it's more expensive, and yes, consumers probably won't pay for it. Just be honest, it's to control costs, things were not set up to keep working if conditions weren't perfect.
      - alblue 10y ago
        Lexus' production line, along with Toyota, is based on a "just in time" production line schedule. They don't have warehouses of stock lying around the place. They probably don't even have a day's worth of excess stock on the line, let alone a week's. To expect that they would stockpile one particular component for a year in advance is laughable.

That's not tesla exclusive. My dad's been waiting 3 months for a replacement airbag for his 2008 lexus. They were one of the ones takata (sp?) recalled but can't make enough replacements.

chrisper 10y ago

This seems to be a circumstantial issue that is probably not the norm. Kind of like a special case!

davidf18 10y ago

Sorry to hear about the 3 month delay and provides some insight in the construction of luxury cars at least Lexus. Auto manufacturers were warned that the propellant for the airbags was dangerous and were warned by other airbag vendors who refused to use it to save a few dollars per airbag and lost the contract to the Japanese airbag vendor. I wonder if other luxury brands such as BMW, Mercedes, Audi, used these types of airbags. I'm guessing not.

davidf18 10y ago
Well, I was wrong. Here is a list of cars effected with recalls for using the "save a few dollars" airbag using a propellant that was known ahead of time to be problematic. http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/news/takata-airbag-recall-list-cars-article-1.2602999 http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/news/takata-airbag-recall-l... Brands include: BMW, Mercedes, Land Rover, Jaguar, Audi, Lexus,.... These companies sell themselves as luxury brands and their cars are very expensive, but it seems clear that the MBAs and bean counters are running these companies and not engineers and car designers. This is my HN submission of a NY Times story on the topic of the airbag recall. One can read how the auto manufacturers deliberately put their customers at risk to save a few dollars per automobile. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12367031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12367031 The question I have is since it seems clear that engineers don't get to decide the safety of the car design and proper engineering in these luxury brands, how do we trust these luxury car manufacturers to even allow the engineers to design the car that they think is best and not the bean counters?
el_benhameen 10y ago
I think this is a Takata (or perhaps Toyota, which owns Lexus) thing, not a luxury car thing. I waited the same three months for a new airbag for my Corolla.

Cookingboy 10y ago

The Takata global airbag recall is a big exception. It affects many (most?) major automakers. Lexus had no control over the availability of spare parts in this case.

ploxiln 10y ago
Of course they "had control". They could have evaluated airbags and suppliers better, they could have made sure they had two different suppliers they could use for any particular model, or alternatively that they have plenty of spares. This is commonly done for many kinds of components. I happen to be more familiar with computers of course, and it's commonly done for SSDs, batteries, screens, and more.
- cstejerean 10y ago
  Having plenty of spares doesn't help when the entire product line gets recalled. That's not a thing you plan for when buying spares.
  - ploxiln 10y ago
    I don't mean a couple of spares, I mean a warehouse good for a year (thus "plenty"). Or, multiple suppliers. There are multiple options that can work, but you have to do one correctly. I'm particularly bothered by throwing hands up and saying "it's not our fault, it's because of a problem at X, it can't be helped", where X is Microsoft, or Oracle, or Fujitsu, or Samsung, or whatever. It can be helped. Yes, it's more expensive, and yes, consumers probably won't pay for it. Just be honest, it's to control costs, things were not set up to keep working if conditions weren't perfect.
    - alblue 10y ago
      Lexus' production line, along with Toyota, is based on a "just in time" production line schedule. They don't have warehouses of stock lying around the place. They probably don't even have a day's worth of excess stock on the line, let alone a week's. To expect that they would stockpile one particular component for a year in advance is laughable.