Irvine, CA – December 10, 2022 – Kia (OTCKMTS:KIMTF) is issuing a recall for 76,918 2023 Kia Sportage SUV crossovers due to faulty airbags. This ups the risk of injury during a crash.
Recall summary
Side curtain airbags are meant to protect the occupants’ heads when a side impact collision happens. In the affected vehicles, which were produced at a Kia facility in Georgia, a worker error during assembly may have resulted in the side curtain airbags being twisted as they were installed in the vehicle.
The component involved in this recall is the curtain airbag module with part numbers 80410-DW000 and 80420-DW000.
Recall risks
The bags may not deploy properly or even at all in a side impact collision. This brings an increased risk of injury to occupants.
Other Kia recalls
In February of last year, there was a Kia airbag recall when over 400,000 vehicles of five different models were recalled over airbags that may not deploy during a crash, upping the risk of a serious injury.
Separately, both Kia and its sister company Hyundai are subject to a U.S. government investigation for numerous non-crash related fires and issues dozens of recalls related to the issue over the past couple of years.
Case in point is the recent Kia Sportage recall, that occurred just last month when over 70,000 2008-2009 model-years were recalled for the second time since 2016 due to several fires that occurred post-repair.
The repair
Dealers will inspect the side curtain airbags and reinstall them correctly as needed, at no cost to the owner. Kia will reimburse owners who had these repairs made before the recall was announced.
Owners of affected vehicles will be notified on or around December 28, 2022.
Is your vehicle part of this recall?
More than 76,000 vehicles are affected by this Kia Sportage airbag recall. To see if your vehicle is among them, run a Kia recall check using MotorSafety’s free vehicle lookup tool.
