Recall · 20V785000
Volkswagen Group of America recalled 2 models over air bags
105,652
Vehicles covered
2
Models
6
Model years
December 16, 2020
Filed with NHTSA
AIR BAGS:FRONTAL
- The defect
- Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain 2012-2014 Volkswagen Beetle and Beetle Convertible vehicles. The driver's side air bag inflator may explode due to propellant degradation occurring after long-term exposure to high absolute humidity, high temperatures, and high temperature cycling.
- What it can cause
- An inflator explosion may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
- What the dealer does
- Volkswagen will notify owners, and dealers will replace the driver frontal air bag, free of charge. The recall began March 19, 2021. Owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 69BC.
- NHTSA's note
- Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov.
The repair is free, whatever the age or mileage of the vehicle, and whether or not you are the original owner.
Which vehicles
A recall reaches a range of VINs inside these model years, not every car built in them. Yours may not be covered even if it is listed here, and the only way to find out is NHTSA's own VIN lookup .
How this campaign compares
At 105,652 vehicles this is a bigger campaign than 92% of the 19,818 vehicle recalls filed since 1995 whose size NHTSA published. The middle campaign on file covers 472. It covers model years 2012 to 2014, so the oldest vehicles on it were 8 model years old when the defect was reported to NHTSA.
Volkswagen vehicles have been recalled over the air bags 22 times before this, most recently in September 2020 as 20V533000. That is not evidence the earlier repair failed.
This site holds the complaint record for 4 of the 6 model years the campaign names. Their owners have filed 213 complaints with NHTSA, 133 of them before this campaign was filed. 64 of those name the air bags, the system this recall is about — a count of complaints, not of this defect. The earliest of them reached NHTSA in February 2012, 8 years before this filing.
Check your own car
A VIN check is the only answer for a specific vehicle, and it also shows every other open recall on it, which is usually the reason it is worth doing rather than reading one campaign.
Filed by Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. with NHTSA on December 16, 2020 as campaign 20V785000. Every word of the defect, consequence and remedy above is NHTSA's published record of that filing, not a summary of it.
Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2020-12-16.
Independent developer and analyst