In May, 250,000 Citröen C3 and DS3 drivers received a letter telling them to immediately stop using their vehicle. Since then, citizen mobilization against the automobile group has grown. With the help of a lawyer, a class action was launched on June 6. France 3 Provence-Alpes takes stock.
“It’s incredible to think that you can no longer drive your car.” More than a month after the recall launched by the Stellantis group, which owns the Citroën and DS Automobiles brands, a majority of owners of C3 and DS3 vehicles with defective airbags are still at an impasse. This Thursday, June 6, collective action was launched against the automobile manufacturer. Today, they are awaiting emergency repairs.
In mid-May, 250,000 owners of these affected vehicles received a strange letter. The chevron mark requires them to “immediately stop using their vehicle”. “This callback action is necessary, because certain chemicals present in the inflators of these Takata airbags can deteriorate over time, particularly when exposed to hot and humid climatic conditions”, details the group. It is mainly the owners who found in the south of France, living in “hot and humid” areas which are affected by the recall.
A shock for Anaïs Grenato, who has not used her vehicle since May 15, the day she opened this famous letter. “It’s our only car, it’s scary. I had to organize myself differently. I have a 7 month old baby. We have to take him to the pediatrician and go to work.” It was only after a month that the driver was able to benefit from a courtesy vehicle.
However, she denounces the lack of organization on the side of the car manufacturer. “I went to Citroën the same day to see what was going on. They didn’t know the extent of what was going to happen. We tried to sort it out on our own.”
Demands shared by Kévin Audibert who decided to create a Facebook group the same evening the mail was received. Through this group, he wishes to “help people, answer their questions and guide them on the steps to take with Citroën and if they wanted to be able to defend themselves.”
Day by day, the group only grew bigger. Today, 5,200 people from all over France, mainly from the south, are part of it. “The first people who arrived in this group were isolated people in particular situations, single parents who only had this vehicle,” Kévin Audibert explains to us.
What the motorist mainly criticizes is the brand’s lack of anticipation regarding users’ daily journeys. This “can penalize people who have an activity linked to their vehicle and families who have only one vehicle”.
At the same time, a Collective action was launched on June 6, led by Christophe Lèguevaques, lawyer. “We want to shed light on this matter, we already have proof that Citroën was already aware of the problem since 2014. What did it do to prevent losses of this magnitude from occurring?”, he told us. -he.
Today, the lawyer is seeking to challenge the liability of the automobile group on a criminal level for “fraud, endangering the lives of others, even involuntary homicide”. 700 drivers have already joined the mobilization.
While thousands of people can no longer use their cars due to the danger of airbags and mainly to get to work, the lawyer arranged to meet the motorists concerned this Tuesday, June 25 in Marseille. The objective of this meeting is to discuss the situation and explain the procedures concerning repair and compensation.
Thierry Koskas, general director of Citroën, was invited to “come and explain himself to the public”. A proposal that he declined, to the regret of the collective.
It is a truly global industrial scandal which broke out first in the United States, then affected the overseas departments and mainland France. After around thirty deaths and 400 injuries, more than 100 million vehicles were recalled across the Atlantic and 250,000 in France. In question: defective airbags manufactured by the Japanese equipment manufacturer Takata, installed in C3 and DS3 cars, manufactured from 2009 to 2019.
In November 2023, Serge Garaud, aged 51, lost his life at the wheel of his Citroën C3 in a road accident in Galan, near Lannemezan, in the Hautes-Pyrénnées. The vehicle found in the ditch, his body is lifeless. No speeding, negative blood alcohol level, no cardiac arrest, only a piece of airbag protruding. All suspicion then falls on this defective airbag. Concern then grew among the French car manufacturer.
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