Chevrolet Malibu Recall Announced Due to Unintentional Airbag Deployment: 4,300 Units
Certain 2013 Chevrolet Malibu’s are being recalled for the possibility that the drivers side roof rail airbag may unexpectedly deploy, possibly causing injury to the driver.
In the event of a situation in which the brakes must be heavily deployed, the sensing and diagnostic module in the car may reset. It takes three seconds for the system to reset, and in the span of those three seconds, the car may falsely sense a rollover if a turn is taken aggressively. This will cause the roof rail airbag to deploy. This situation is fairly unique, but General Motors did have one documented case of this in a test vehicle, so the company thought it best to issue a recall.
This announcement comes just one week after the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco was placed on to the IIHS’s top safety pick list.
4,304 Malibu’s are affected by the recall, and owners will be notified by the company and have there sensing and diagnostic module reprogrammed by a GM dealer. For more information you can contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s safety hotline at 1-888-327-4236.
Stephen covers all of the day-to-day events of the industry as the News Editor at AutoGuide, along with being the AG truck expert. His truck knowledge comes from working long days on the woodlot with pickups and driving straight trucks professionally. When not at his desk, Steve can be found playing his bass or riding his snowmobile or Sea-Doo. Find Stephen on <A title="@Selmer07 on Twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/selmer07">Twitter</A> and <A title="Stephen on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/117833131531784822251?rel=author">Google+</A>
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My in laws just bought a 2013 Chevy Malibu It has only 400 miles on it now and they wrecked it this morning hitting a guard rail head on at 70 mph. None of the airbags deployed thank God they were not seriously injured the car was totaled. To make matters worse the enstar system would not work either. The car went completely dead nothing worked! They are in their upper 60's and early 70's. They only way they had to alert the authorities and get an ambulance to the scene was a cell phone in which my father in law had to search for in the dark with no lights what so ever. I am very upset that a car with such high safety ratings would fail them so. It sounds as if the airbag problem is much more complicated than this article states.