Citroën asks more than 236,000 customers to stop rolling

Citroën and DS asked on Monday at 236,900 owners of C3 and DS3 models in the north of France, registered between 2008 and 2013, to immobilize their vehicle until replacement of its airbags.

These Takata brand airbags are likely to cause serious injuries and have already caused 11 deaths overseas, where the climate degrades airbags faster, and death in mainland France, according to the Ministry of Transport.

A chaotic immobilization campaign – called “stop drive” – ​​had already been launched by Citroën and DS in early 2024 in the south of Europe and in the Maghreb. In France, it concerned the south of the country and overseas.

236,900 vehicles concerned

The vehicles concerned by the Monday recall, located north of a Lyon-Clermont-Ferrand line, were already called to go to the garage since January 2025.

But new tests on a car in Loire-Atlantique prompted the parent company of Citroën and DS, the Stellantis group, to extend the immobilization “as a precaution” to the rest of France, a spokesman for the group said ‘AFP.

The owners of these vehicles are called upon to make an appointment on the Citroën website.

Unlike the 2024 campaign, which had immobilized many motorists for weeks, the manufacturer now has sufficient replacement airbags, and dealers can install them “immediately,” said the spokesperson.

The group also mobilized eight of its factories in France (Rennes, Poissy, Sochaux, Mulhouse, Trémery, Charleville-Meizières, Hordain, Douvrin) to accommodate customers.

Drivers not yet informed

With its letters and poster campaigns, Stellantis did not immediately touch all customers: out of 73,800 people warned in January in the north of France, 42,400 registered for repair, and 17,600 cars were revised, according to Stellantis.

Since April 2024, as part of the first recall wave launched in southern Europe and the Maghreb, more than 400,000 cars have been repaired, out of the 530,000 Citroën C3 and DS3 sold between 2009 and 2019 in zones concerned.

The vehicles sold between 2014 and 2019 in the north of France and other European countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, etc.) will be the next reminder waves, but without immobilization, Stellantis said.

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The Takata scandal, which broke out in 2014, led the Japanese manufacturer to bankruptcy. Volkswagen, Nissan, BMW or Toyota, among others, recalled millions of vehicles equipped with these dangerous airbags.