I'm sure there's more to it, legally and logistically, but I'm kind of surprised that we've yet to reach the point where the proper organizations have said "Okay, you know what? If your airbag says 'Takata,' it's being recalled."

"April 13, 2016: Regulators state that there are 85 million potentially defective, unrecalled Takata airbag inflators that will need to be recalled—unless Takata can prove they are safe. So far, the recall has included 28.8 million airbags in the U.S."

It really feels like that's the direction we are headed.

"It will be 2019 before there are enough Takata airbag replacements"

I'd also half bet Takata and their lawyers are trying to see what they can do to shuffle some paperwork around, maybe restructure the company or something, to limit the amount of financial fallout.

"Takata wants a sugar daddy to pay for its massive airbag recall"

I know when the whole ignition switch fiasco cane about with GM, they tried to say "Well hold on, that was pre-bailout GM that was responsible. We are a completely different company now, legally speaking, so it's unfair to hold us responsible for the decisions made by old GM."

Well, that one makes sense. They were hit with a billion dollar fine, they went through with the recall, they faced "deferred prosecution" and they basically agreed to cooperate in order to get the cars fixed. And keep in mind - the US is recalling all these airbags. These are primarily Japanese cars and the Japanese portion of the recall is tiny.

The fact that tactics like that work sometimes is kind of mind boggling.

That's just trade. Welcome to the big leagues.