Citroën’s airbag nightmare continues: 236,900 recalls in north of France

Yesterday, Citroën asked 236,900 owners of a C3 or DS3 in the north of France to stop using their car until the airbags are replaced. The Takata-made airbags can cause serious injuries by exploding uncontrolled and dangerously.

Other manufacturers, such as VW, Nissan, BMW, Toyota, and several others, have already recalled millions of vehicles equipped with these airbags from the Japanese supplier Takata, which went bankrupt in 2017.

Not the first time

Due to several lethal accidents, Citroën has already launched a campaign called ‘Stop Drive’ at the beginning of last year in the south of Europe and in the North African countries, where thousands of Citroën drivers were immobilized for several weeks.

In France, it concerned the south of the country and the overseas regions. Potential airbag explosions were mainly caused by long-term criteria like heat and humidity.

Since yesterday, the fictive line Lyon-Clermont-Ferrand has been crossed: owners of C3 and DS3 vehicles registered between 2008 and 2013 have been asked to stop driving their cars. Since the beginning of 2025, Citroën has asked its clients to go to the dealers without prohibiting driving.

New tests with a car based in the Loire Atlantique region showed a degradation in the quality of the ammonium nitrate used to inflate the airbag in case of an accident, a Stellantis spokesman told AFP. The manufacturing group then decided to extend the stop-drive call to the entire French territory.

During the first recall in 2024, Stellantis was forced to mobilize its entire distribution network, which was practically invaded by clients fearing an accident. It had to lend thousands of replacement cars and heavily increase the production of new, appropriate airbags.

“Today, Stellantis has enough airbags in stock, and they can be replaced immediately,” said the spokesman. The group has also mobilized its eight French factories (Rennes, Poissy, Sochaux, Mulhouse, Trémery, Charleville-Mézières, Hordain, and Douvrin) to help with this airbag exchange and serve the clients involved.

Difficult exercise

With all these campaigns and messages, Stellantis is not succeeding in reaching out to all clients possibly affected. Since April 2024, more than 400,000 cars were treated out of the 530,000 C3 and DS3 sold between 2009 and 2019 in southern Europe and northern Africa.

Almost 870,000 units of cars sold in northern France and other northern countries of Europe between 2014 and 2019 will also be recalled in the future, but without a call for immobilization, explains Stellantis.

Meanwhile, several owners of a Citroën C3 are suing Stellantis for “endangering other people’s lives” and “misleading commercial practices,” demanding financial compensation.