Suzuki has announced a recall covering nearly 200,000 vehicles in the United States. Suzuki no longer sells its car and trucks on these shores, but the Japanese automaker is still on the hook for any defects that could compromise safety.
Suzuki issued a recall on Monday covering 2006-11 Grand Vitara models and SX4s from the 2007-11 model years for an airbag defect. In all the recall includes 193,936 vehicles.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the airbag sensor in the front passenger seat of the vehicles involved in the recall may become disconnected “as a result of repeated flexing of the mat from use of the seat.” If that sensor fails, the front airbag will deploy “regardless of whether the front seat occupant is an adult or a child.”
The airbag system is designed to shutoff when a child is detected in the front seat in order to prevent injuries from the force of the bag going off.
No accidents or injuries have been linked to the defect.
Since Suzuki no longer operates on these shores, there is no current timeline for when the recall might be resolved. Suzuki will notify owners of the recall next month, but the company doesn’t know when it will have the parts to fix the problem.