General Motors issued a safety recall for the 2014 model year Buick Verano and Chevrolet Cruze due to airbag inflators produced by Autoliv Steering Wheels Mexico. Said airbag inflators are believed to feature a manufacturing defect that may lead to a rupture at the inflator’s weld joint on deployment.
In the event of a rupture, compressed gas will escape, thus causing a partial inflation of the roof rail-mounted airbag inflator. Worse still for Autoliv, one or more sections of the inflator may enter or exit the vehicle on deployment, causing injuries to the people seated in the vehicle or standing around it.
The part numbers of the suspect inflators are 13251629, 13251630, 13420056, and 13420057. As per the report attached below, both the left and right inflators are recalled. Suspect vehicles were assembled in calendar year 2014 for model year 2014, with production dates ranging from January 28 to May 17 for the Verano. In the Chevrolet Cruze’s case, that would be January 21 to June 1.
1,114 examples of the Verano were produced for the United States market with iffy airbag inflators, while the Cruze’s population is estimated at 8,150 units. General Motors became aware of a rupture involving a Cruze on April 26 this year, an incident reported via GM’s Speak Up For Safety program.
As of October 2023, the Detroit-based automaker is aware of three incidents dated August 2017, April 2023, and July 2023. In all three, GM confirmed that the roof rail-mounted airbag inflator had ruptured at the weld joint. General Motors hasn’t yet determined the root cause, albeit it’s pretty certain that Big G is dealing with a manufacturing defect.
Photo: Chevrolet
Dealers have already been instructed to replace all suspect inflators with remedy assemblies produced outside the suspect production window. Owners will be informed by first-class mail on or about November 6. In the meantime, owners are recommended to check with GM or the NHTSA whether their compact sedans are recalled or not.
Joined at the hip to the Chevrolet Cruze from the very beginning, the Verano was developed with one eye on the Chinese market. Even though General Motors pulled the plug on the Verano from the US lineup after 2017, the compact sedan received a China-exclusive third generation in 2021 on the automaker’s VSS-F front-wheel-drive platform.
The Vehicle Set Strategy line of platforms will eventually replace pretty much everything that’s not electric. For example, the VSS-T for body-on-frame applications will underpin the next-generation Chevrolet Silverado and Colorado pickup trucks.
As far as the Cruze is concerned, it’s currently produced in Argentina exclusively. Production will come to a screeching halt by the end of 2023 with no successor in sight. Over in the United States, the indirect replacement for the Cruze is the Trax. Redesigned for 2024, the Trax also rocks the VSS-F platform of the Buick Verano sedan for China.
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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