Citroën calls back more than 33,000 cars, owners are no longer allowed to drive it

This article was last updated on June 20, 2025

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Citroën calls back more than 33,000 cars, owners are no longer allowed to drive it

More than 33,000 Dutch motorists with a certain type of Citroën are no longer allowed to drive there. This is the second generation of the Citroën C3 and the DS3 of the first generation. Including other generations, there are more than 87,000 of those types in our country.

Owners of these Citroëns are advised to contact the seller of the car directly for a free repair. In the cars that were built between 2009 and 2019, problems with the airbags have been established, reports parent company Stellantis.

There was already a European recall to repair those airbags, but the death of a woman in Reims, France, accelerated it. She died last week due to a defect in the Airbag of the Citroen C3 from 2014 in which she drove. The French Ministry of Transport then ordered all these vehicles to be removed from the road.

The woman in Reims is the second fatal victim on the French mainland as a result of the defective airbags. According to estimates, sixteen people also died in overseas terrains of France, such as Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Not spontaneous

It was already known that problems can arise in warm weather with the so-called Takata-airbag. Heat and moisture can affect the quality of the airbag.

If the airbag develops in the event of a collision, it is possible that particles of the device will be spread throughout the car. Stellantis emphasizes that the airbag cannot explode spontaneously.

Stellantis decided to give priority to the solution of the problems in Southern Europe, because the climate there increases the chance of defects. After research, Stellantis decided today to recall all conscious types of Citroëns throughout Europe, including in the Netherlands.

France correspondent Frank Renout

Stellantis, the parent company of Citroën, already called back a first group of cars last year due to risks with the airbags and a second group at the beginning of this year. In total it concerns around 690,000 cars that had to go back to the garage. Of these, more than 480,000 have now been repaired.

The French government estimated in February this year that 2.3 million cars are driving around in France with a possible defective airbag. There is A special webpage Made with public information. This includes the 30 brands with Takata airbags that cars have recalled for repairs, from Honda to Tesla.

The French consumer organization Que Choisir filed an indictment against Stellantis at the beginning of this year. The Public Prosecution Service in Paris is also considering the case and is currently collecting all complaints and incidents from all over France, awaiting any prosecution.