In July, Chris Zerial was told by BMW that his three-series car is fitted with faulty airbags.
He says he immediately booked a date to replace them.
"If there's a letter there that says you're in danger, you'd be silly not to get it done. I just think every owner needs to take responsibility and make sure they call up, they check and they do the due diligence on it."
But other drivers haven't been as diligent, despite the largest vehicle-related recall in Australian history.
And that complacency has the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission concerned.
Commission Deputy chair Delia Rickards is urging motorists to check if their car is fitted with a Takata airbag.
"I think the lesson is learnt that you act quickly, and you have good, clear communications. And the earlier you know about these things, the easier it is to locate the cars, the easier it is to get them back, and the easier it is to fix the problem."
Over the past 12 months, 1.1 million Takata airbags in 930,000 Australian cars have been fixed.
That leaves leaving 1.8 million in 1.6 million vehicles still needing replacement.
582,000 of the total cars affected are from Toyota and its luxury brand, Lexus.
Honda follows with 436,000 vehicles, then Holden with 330,000 cars.
Ms Rickard explains the most dangerous Takata airbag is known as Alpha, where one in two won't properly deploy in a crash.
20,000 remain on Australian roads.
"They really, really are a ticking time bomb. And I can't emphasise enough: if you've got one of those cars, stop driving it, have the car organised to be collected, and have the bags replaced."
And with one Australian death reportedly caused by the defective airbags, veteran mechanics like Tom Horne are warning of the dire consequences.
"It's an explosion, and there's metal shards that actually come through. It's unlucky enough if you've got one of those airbags and it does go off - it could cause a nasty injury. A lot of people just don't take it seriously, like they think 'oh it's a recall, one day I'll go and get it done.' Oh mate in some cars it'd cost more to replace the airbags than what the car's worth."
At the top of the list of manufacturers doing well with the recall is Mazda, with 84 per cent of its affected cars now fixed.
Honda follows with 74 per cent, then Toyota and Lexus with 67 per cent of vehicles now rectified.
But some suppliers, like BMW and Ford, are still lagging behind
Tony Weber, from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, says that is due to the staggered rollout of the recalls.
"Some of the recalls are less than six months old, so that's why there's the variation between brands and the rate at which they're being recalled. That's not an issue. What is an issue is about getting people to react to this recall and being in position to react as quickly as possible as soon as airbag supplies are ready."
Drivers can check the safety of their airbags on the website ismyairbagsafe.com.au
