Replacements and recalls due to faulty car components will take years not months to process, it was reported on Thursday.

The public had been lead to believe that recall issues can be resolved promptly “with a simple call to the dealership” but no one is addressing the fact that car dealers are in no position to handle such an overwhelming volume of vehicles in a matter of months, Alexis Anninos, managing director of Cyprus Import Corporation told CyBC radio’s morning programme.

According to Anninos, the process will take years.

The matter ultimately hinges on work hours-and by extension staffing-at dealerships, no matter how quickly laws are passed to regulate the issue of recalls for faulty Takata airbags, or any other component.

“No dealership can process 50 replacements a day,” Anninos said, extrapolating from Wednesday’s statements by authorities and instructions to 11,181 car owners of Mazda Demios to “directly contact” the dealer.

“Overnight, the dealer is supposed to handle 11,000 plus phone calls, something no organisation in the country can do!” Anninos said.

Recalls are not a new phenomenon and had been happening on an ongoing basis for years, he said, adding that in other countries, like Germany, vehicles carrying faulty car components that have been prioritised as higher risk, are given an 18-month timeframe for replacement.

Anninos contrasted this with the three-month directive proposed for completing Takata airbag recalls in Cyprus (initially six months), which had been slated to start on January 1.

Tens of thousands of vehicles, by some estimates up to 80,000, are expected to require recall, while 60 per cent of the vehicle fleet in the country had been determined to be cars imported from third countries, which prolongs the hunt for information and thus component replacement procedures.

A parliamentary bill to be debated on Thursday, provides actions to be taken on behalf of the road transport department (Tom) and the transport ministry, for removing these vehicles from circulation, following their identification and the dispatch of a recall notice to the owner.

The motor and electric vehicles importers association had appealed on Wednesday for amendments, charging that the bill as it stood was wildly unfeasible.

It would cause insurmountable problems with many cars being immobilised for months while awaiting replacement of problematic components, the association said. Meanwhile, the ministry of transport was said to be deliberating the issue of free public transport passes for affected owners.

The car importers association also criticised the authorities for not providing a prioritisation system based on proper risk assessment, and for demanding an “impossible” five-day turnaround for the issue of “no-recall” certificates at registration and during transfer of ownership.

Elsewhere, the consumer protection association said on Thursday that it would take two weeks to investigate dealers charging owners inspection fees. Owners of affected vehicles are being charged anything from €60 to €500, according to reports.

Head of the consumer service Constantinos Karagiorgis had stated outright that charges for inspection were illegal, according to a report in Philenews.

On Wednesday, transport department Director Andreas Louka, had said that dealers are legally obligated to replace faulty parts free of charge but that the charging of “administrative fees” is being examined.