http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/business/takata-air-bag-warning-leaves-drivers-looking-for-answers-as-federal-resources-fail-to-respond.html 2014-10-21 19:09:27 Takata Air Bag Warning Leaves Drivers Looking for Answers A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration site that allows drivers to look up a car by VIN was not responding, and calls were put on hold. === Consumers were left in confusion Tuesday over air bags at risk of rupture, with federal auto safety regulators urging owners of more than five million vehicles to “ But just finding out whether a car needs to be repaired was proving difficult for many owners. A link from the The website is a nationwide clearinghouse for recall information that covers vehicles registered in the United States. Recall information can also be found by calling a local dealer. Some automakers now allow searches by vehicle identification number, including The Takata air bags are used in wide range of vehicles recalled over the past two years. The largest number, about 2.8 million, are made by Chrysler Beyond the problems with the safety agency’s website, many automakers do not have enough replacements parts to complete all the repairs. Honda, which has 2.8 million vehicles affected by the warning, acknowledged that it did not have enough parts and that it could take weeks to get them. And Toyota, as a stopgap measure, said it would in some cases disable passenger-side air bags, leaving a note not to ride in the front passenger seat, a policy that safety regulators endorsed. Normally, federal regulations prohibit automakers from disabling air bags. But David J. Friedman, deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said in an interview Monday evening that because of the seriousness of the air bag defect, the agency was condoning the move. If other automakers face a parts shortage, they, too, could disable the defective air bags, Mr. Friedman said. “You can’t make inoperative something that is already broken,” Mr. Friedman said. “But what you can do is provide an interim solution to protect people if not enough replacement air bags are available.” The ruptures, which can be caused when explosive propellants in the air bag become unstable, have been linked to four possible deaths and more than 100 injuries, according to automakers, law enforcement agencies, lawyers, injury victims and families of those killed.