Mo Karnage

Yall Are Petty: Air Bags That Kill You

Everyday I navigate the planet, and am faced repeatedly with yall being petty. This column is to address yall’s petty bullshit. Call it calling out, or calling in, or maybe just calling bullshit. I’m calling yall petty, and this is why:
I drive a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. Which is great because we live 30 minutes from everywhere. A couple of months ago, as all my cars do, it started fucking up. Specifically, the brakes stopped working. Every light on the dashboard potentially associated with the brakes was lit up. From the cool swervy ones, which I think just mean you are having fun, to ones alerting me to no brakes, no ABS, etc.  Exciting stuff. The kids were at daycare, so I drove with no brakes to a client’s house to look at a window job.  Then I drove with no brakes to our mechanic. They took a look and it turned out there was something wrong with the computer. Computers in cars is an entirely different column. Anyways, from what they could tell, the problem was proprietary enough and potentially hybrid specific enough they suggested I take it to the dealer. Great there goes all my money. So then I drove with no brakes to the dealership. I am available for hire as a stunt driver, fyi.

At the dealership I am bitching about there being a goddamn computer in my car in the first place, when the sales guy tells me there is a recall on my car. Not what you want to hear, although for a second I was hoping it had to do with the brakes. No such luck. Apparently my car, and also like every other car, has a type of airbag that has been recalled. I tell the guy, who is also named Mo, but he has an ‘e’, so I tell Moe great, fucking fix the airbags while you’ve got it here.

Not possible, it turns out. They don’t know when they will get in airbags to replace the faulty ones. Everyone it seems uses the same manufacturer of airbags, so it is not just a Ford problem. I ask if they would cover just removing my goddamn airbags since they are liable to kill me anyways. No dice. What is this petty shit.

A few weeks and several thousand dollars later, I’m driving in my car WITH brakes and listening to NPR cause I am a nerd, and there is an enlightening story about how the airbag manufacturer company is declaring bankruptcy. Takata is a sinking ship. Who will replace my dangol airbags? I don’t want to drown with Tacata! Does anyone have a factory I can use to start manufacturing my own airbags? I hear there is a market for good non lethal airbags…

But basically, it would appear that there is a faulty part in many vehicles on the road, which can explode which cause extreme/extraneous injury and also death, and this is a known issue, which you may be informed of, but which you can do nothing about until someone lends me the funds to start a fucking airbag factory. Whag makes this extra petty is that ot is a SAFETY feature. “Safety”. Oh yea, and older models in humid areas *ahem* are supposed to be repaired first, but it might be several years until everyone gets repairs and also maybe one out of four cars has this issue.

COOL. Can I sue Ford before I get exploded on, or do I need to wait til I’m schrapneled? This is bureaucracy is it not? This is a lack of corporate accountability. Fuck Takata, what about the car manufacturers who bought and installed these faulty bags of air. It should be on them to be accountable to me, and Takata to be accountable to them.

So to you Moe with an ‘e’ and everyone else at the Ford Dealership, yall are petty. Ford yall are petty (you are still actually my favorite shhhh), and Takata yall are petty too.

I like explosions as much as the next American, but I’m not trying to have one go off in my car. The whole situation is petty.My advice is fo you to seriously start a manufacturer of non deafly airbags posthaste.