GM replacing passenger airbags in over 243,000 Pontiac Vibes

Sat, Jun 20 2015

General Motors is repairing over 243,000 additional examples of the 2003-2007 Pontiac Vibe in the US and Canada to replace their Takata-supplied passenger-side airbag inflators. The company has no reports of irregular deployments in the models, though.

These aren't actually newly included vehicles in the massive safety campaign. As a twin to the Toyota Matrix, the Vibe was already included in Toyota's figures, but as Pontiac-branded vehicles, GM dealers are taking care of these replacements. They have been covered as part of the Takata campaign in the past.

Toyota expanded its own Takata recall to passenger-side components for 1.365 million vehicles on June 16. Earlier, General Motors also issued a campaign for 330,198 examples of the 2007 and 2008 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD, 3500HD, GMC Sierra 2500HD, and 3500HD pickups to replace their passenger-side parts. After exposure to moisture, it's possible for these inflators to ignite too quickly in an accident and spray shrapnel at occupants.

GM Statement
The Vibes are included in two Toyota recall campaigns - one for high absolute humidity (HAH) areas and one for non-HAH areas. Both are considered national recalls even though only vehicles in certain HAH states and territories are in the recall.

Total Pontiac Vibe passenger air bag numbers for MY 2003-2007 (U.S. and Canada only):

High Absolute Humidity 89,719

Non High Absolute Humidity areas 252,685

These are the totals, which include about 99,000 previously recalled.

GM knows of no field issues - irregular deployments - with these air bag inflators.

By Chris Bruce