Hyundai recalls Sante Fe and Sonata in U.S owing to defect in airbags deployment

Hyundai Motor Company, the South Korea based leading auto manufacturer, is recalling its bestselling model in the U.S market, mid-size crossover SUV, Santa Fe and its flagship mid-size sedan, Sonata in U.S owing to the defects in the airbags.

The automaker will be recalling over 1,99,118 Santa Fe SUVs manufactured between the years 2007 to 2009. As per the document filed with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Santa Fe’s produced during these years are expected to be installed with erroneous OCS (Occupant Classification Systems), software responsible for deploying the airbags by gauging the size of small passengers in case of impending contingency.

In these vehicles to be recalled, the OCS may prevent the airbags from cushioning the front passengers from injuries resulting from accidents raising the safety risk quotient in the SUV. The company has announced that the recall will impose an obligation on the dealers across the nation to update the OCS software’s sensors free of cost.

Hyundai is also calling back over 22,500 Sonata sedans manufactured during January and June this year due to the unexpected release of airbags resulted from fault in the fabrication of airbags and associated command systems.

In these Sonata sedans, the unintentional deployment of curtain side airbags would result in injury to the passengers along with causing distraction to the driver by restricting the vision and can aggravate the risk of accidents. The automaker has so far received 16 complaints, however, no injuries have been reported.

Under this recall, Hyundai dealers will be informing the owners of such defective Sonatas and will offer replacement of the curtain side airbags at no cost. The recall is anticipated to commence from August this year.