More Scary Stuff

I have blogged about counterfeit parts from China before. I'm sure that most people feel that counterfeit parts will not have a big impact on their lives and that they don't need to worry about them. But the NHTSA now has evidence that bogus parts may hit you close to home.

The NHTSA is putting out a warning about counterfeit air bags being installed in automobiles. There have been recent cases where counterfeit air bags have been confiscated and one Chinese national jailed for trafficking in counterfeit air bags. If you have had an air bag replaced within the past three years by a private auto body shop, you may have received a bogus bag. (Dealer shops will use the manufacturer's parts) The bag may not inflate or, in one case, the air bag fired shards of metal on activation. So far, there have been no deaths traceable to counterfeit air bags, but they are out there.The culprit is a company called Guangzhou Auto Parts but they package the assemblies with copies of manufacturers logos so the parts are not readily identifiable as coming from China.