General Motors has issued a recall for approximately 21,000 vehicles produced for the 2014 model year. The 2014 model year Chevrolet Cruze and 2014 model year Buick Verano vehicles in question feature roof rail airbag inflators with inflator chambers that were contaminated during the production process.
On September 20, the biggest automaker of the Big Three in Detroit notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of recall number 23V-674. At the time, GM recalled 9,264 examples of the Cruze and Verano. Said vehicles were equipped with airbag inflators from production lots associated with three inflator ruptures. The cause of these ruptures was under investigation back in September 2023.
Fast forward to October 2023, and the supplier of the roof rail airbag modules initiated a study of inflator chambers produced by two different chamber suppliers. Autoliv Steering Wheels Mexico determined that all three of the ruptured chambers were contaminated during the production process, with said chambers supplied by the Norma Group.
According to Autoliv, the unspecified contamination can result in failure at the weld joint due to corrosion of the inflator chamber. Chambers produced by the other supplier had little to no contamination. Autoliv informed General Motors about the findings, prompting the American automaker to issue a second recall. This one bears number 23V-870 in the federal watchdog's system.
Suspect roof rail airbag modules bear part numbers 13251629, 13251630, 13420056, and 13420057. Suspect vehicles were manufactured from January 17, 2014 to June 1, 2014 for the Chevrolet Cruze and January 13, 2014 to June 2, 2014 for the Buick Verano. Dealers have already been instructed to replace the left and right-side roof rail airbags at no charge, whereas known owners will be notified by the automaker via mail no later than February 5, 2024.
Photo: Chevrolet
The remedy RAAB modules contain properly manufactured inflator chambers. Recalled inflators could rupture at the weld point, allowing compressed gas to escape, thus causing a partial inflation of the airbag. One or more sections of the inflator could enter or exit the vehicle, increasing the risk of injury to the occupants and/or people around the vehicle.
Originally released in 2008 as the Daewoo Lacetti Premiere in South Korea, the Chevrolet Cruze was discontinued from the North American lineup back in 2019. The second generation soldiered on in Argentina at the Alvear plant, where production came to a halt in October 2023 due to dwindling demand.
Over at Buick, which is a huge brand in China, the Verano was redesigned twice. Back in 2015, the folks at SAIC-GM rolled out the second-generation Verano on the D2XX platform of the Cruze. The third generation entered production in 2021 on the VSS-F, a platform shared with the Encore GX crossover. Not exactly a coincidence, the Encore GX for the US market is manufactured in China rather than the US.
A subcompact crossover, the Encore GX starts at $25,600 for the 2024 model year. Instead of a four-cylinder turbo, prospective customers will have to make do with either a 1.2- or a 1.3-liter three-pot connected to a continuously variable transmission.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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