Toyota Recalls Previously Recalled Corolla Cross Vehicles Over Safety Concern

In early May 2023, a Toyota employee observed that a portion of the instrument panel manufacturing process had been performed out of sequence by the supplier. The supplier in question is Alabama-based Vuteq, and the reason it's based in Alabama is that Toyota makes the Corolla Cross in Huntsville.

Subsequent investigations revealed that certain panels were missing the perforation for the front passenger airbag on the underside of said instrument panels. How come? As it happens, certain steps of the production work process for milling the perforation have been skipped. Otherwise put, a big oopsie.

Toyota tested incorrectly manufactured panels to determine the effects of no perforation on airbag performance, and not surprising in the least, the airbag was found to deploy in an abnormal manner. This, in turn, means that recalled vehicles may not meet the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 208, paragraph S14.4.

As a result, Toyota instructed dealers nationwide to inspect and – if necessary – replace the instrument panel at no cost to the owners. Owner notifications were mailed between July 10 and July 29, meaning that many of them have had the panels replaced.

Be that as it may, Toyota recently discovered that certain dealers may have messed up. More to the point, a number of dealers failed to identify vehicles that required the remedy. Not because of their fault, but rather "due to a problem with the inspection process specified by Toyota." Out of an abundance of caution, the Japanese automaker estimates that 12,600 vehicles need to be reinspected. Owners will be informed of this blunder by mid-February 2024.

For some reason or another, Toyota didn't provide any production dates for the potentially affected vehicles. As per documents filed with the NHTSA, the original recall comprised 2022 and 2023 models with build dates ranging between September 1, 2021 and May 4, 2023. Of the initially recalled population of 96,007 vehicles, Toyota estimated that two percent required the remedy, which means 1,920 and a bit.

12,600 is a terribly high number, though, representing 13.1% of the originally recalled population. On the upside, Toyota isn't aware of any injuries resulting from abnormal front passenger airbag deployments. That being said, the Corolla Cross is a Top Safety Pick in the eyes of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. It passed all but one crashworthiness test with flying colors, the exception being an acceptable rating in the nonprofit organization's updated side crash test. The lesser of two headlight designs was also deemed acceptable due to inadequate visibility from the low beams on the gradual left curve, as well as from the high beams on the left side, sharp right, and sharp left curves.

At press time, Toyota charges $23,610 for the most basic of specifications available. Level up to the Corolla Cross Hybrid, and the MSRP balloons to $27,835 sans destination charge and extras. The all-wheel-drive hybrid is listed with up to 42 miles per gallon (5.6 liters per 100 kilometers) on the combined test cycle, whereas the internal combustion-only Corolla Cross gets 32 with FWD and 30 with FWD.