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Which Cars Have the Most Airbag Problems

Every complaint filed about this part since 1995, by model, by model year, and by the mileage it failed at.

3 min read · 298 figures, all from the federal record · rebuilt 3 hours ago

Owners have filed 155,546 complaints with NHTSA about the airbag system — 7.2% of every complaint in the file. This is where those complaints land.

The heaviest single model year is the 2008 Ford Fusion, with 638 complaints about this part alone, 42% of everything reported about that car.

Where owners recorded an odometer reading, the typical airbag system failure on this list happened at about 85,000 miles.

Worst model years

Vehicle	Complaints	Share of that year	Median failure	Crashes	Fires
F 2008 Ford Fusion	638	42%	83,500 mi	18	2
F 2007 Ford Fusion	617	48%	89,500 mi	25	0
F 2008 Chevrolet Silverado 1500	594	54%	80,216 mi	27	0
B 2010 Ford Fusion	590	8%	85,000 mi	27	1
F 2009 Toyota Corolla	554	31%	79,500 mi	62	1
F 2002 Jeep Liberty	551	24%	115,000 mi	109	3
D 2013 Nissan Altima	513	17%	14,000 mi	29	0
F 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe	501	33%	100,000 mi	18	0
F 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee	488	28%	124,750 mi	35	0
F 2007 Chevrolet Silverado 1500	479	45%	95,500 mi	15	0
F 2000 Honda Accord	471	31%	79,787 mi	51	1
F 2005 Toyota Corolla	458	47%	92,248 mi	61	0
F 2003 Dodge RAM 1500	457	34%	112,500 mi	35	1
F 2006 Toyota Corolla	453	47%	86,000 mi	54	3
F 2006 Hyundai Sonata	444	31%	70,000 mi	19	1
F 2007 Toyota Corolla	439	45%	82,500 mi	54	0
F 2008 Ford Edge	439	30%	92,000 mi	24	1
F 2001 Honda Accord	430	37%	85,000 mi	104	1
F 2010 Toyota Corolla	425	27%	62,932 mi	51	0
D 2011 Hyundai Sonata	418	9%	92,800 mi	51	5
F 2011 Toyota Corolla	418	61%	57,000 mi	28	0
D 2012 Ford Fusion	406	13%	68,000 mi	36	0
F 2003 Jeep Liberty	392	23%	120,000 mi	73	1
F 2013 Volkswagen Passat	382	37%	56,718 mi	21	0
F 2008 Honda Accord	379	20%	80,000 mi	45	0

By brand

Across whole ranges rather than single years. On Ford vehicles this part accounts for 5% of everything owners reported about the brand.

Ford 17,247 13.9%

5% of all Ford complaints, across 96 models

Chevrolet 15,868 12.8%

6% of all Chevrolet complaints, across 120 models

Toyota 13,300 10.7%

10% of all Toyota complaints, across 63 models

Honda 12,772 10.3%

10% of all Honda complaints, across 34 models

Dodge 12,331 9.9%

8% of all Dodge complaints, across 62 models

Nissan 7,589 6.1%

8% of all Nissan complaints, across 41 models

Jeep 6,948 5.6%

6% of all Jeep complaints, across 30 models

BMW 6,008 4.8%

15% of all BMW complaints, across 141 models

Chrysler 5,630 4.5%

8% of all Chrysler complaints, across 38 models

Hyundai 5,455 4.4%

7% of all Hyundai complaints, across 39 models

Volkswagen 5,071 4.1%

10% of all Volkswagen complaints, across 35 models

Mercedes Benz 4,580 3.7%

14% of all Mercedes Benz complaints, across 185 models

GMC 4,322 3.5%

7% of all GMC complaints, across 71 models

Pontiac 3,490 2.8%

9% of all Pontiac complaints, across 20 models

KIA 3,432 2.8%

6% of all KIA complaints, across 37 models

Complaints about this part, by make.

Where this sits in the whole record

Engine & Cooling 288,020 13.4%

Electrical System 246,872 11.5%

Transmission & Drivetrain 216,960 10.1%

Brakes 196,407 9.1%

Airbags 155,546 7.2%

Steering 143,306 6.7%

Fuel & Propulsion 127,175 5.9%

Other & Unspecified 115,162 5.4%

Body & Structure 103,108 4.8%

Suspension 88,852 4.1%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 84,656 3.9%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 76,576 3.6%

Every complaint in the file, by part.

Source — NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation complaint file.

How this was made. Nobody wrote this article and left it to age. It is generated by a query against the complaint database, and rebuilt every time the data is — so the numbers in the sentences above are the numbers as they stand today, not as they stood when somebody last had time to update them. How the grading works.