GM's Side Airbags Are Still Crashing the Party

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

In a perfect world, a vehicle’s airbags would only deploy in circumstances where the driver, in hindsight, applauds the life-saving buffer’s invention. Not included in that list of circumstances is a spinout, far removed from hard obstacles or other vehicles.

One Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driver isn’t applauding General Motors after his car’s side curtain airbags made their presence known at 19 mph, free of any impacting object or rollover.

As reported by Jalopnik, the ZL1 driver was just completing an autocross course spinout in his supposedly track-ready pony car when the side curtains deployed. Correspondence with the driver revealed the car hit a pothole as it completed the slide, no doubt boosting the lateral g-forces on the car. This was enough to cause onboard electric nannies to freak out.

Damage to the car and wheel was nonexistent, he claims.

While the anonymous driver didn’t get any more track fun that day, his car, now with engine immobilized, did go on a date with a tow vehicle, ending up at a GM dealership. There, the automaker began an investigation, though the driver won’t be privy to the probe’s results.

“This (Raytheon) rep explained to me that while he could not share with me his thoughts, he would tell me that the curtain airbags should only deploy in case of a collision with something (vehicle, building, pole, etc) or a roll-over,” the d river said in an email. “Once the report is sent to GM, GM engineering then decides in a committee whether there is an engineering defect or not.”

Cost of airbag replacement? A cool $6,400, after the driver decided not to attempt collection through the courts.

This isn’t the first time a set of GM side curtains popped when not needed. Back in 2011, a video made the internet rounds showing the side curtains on a previous-gen Camaro SS deploying during a drifting stunt. Last year, video emerged of a ZL1’s side curtains deploying after the driver, who clearly doesn’t believe in the “9 and 3” rule, ran over some curbing while on the track. In this case, it’s likely some momentary daylight appeared between the pavement and the Camaro’s passenger-side rubber.

But the Camaro isn’t the only GM vehicle to experience this phenomenon. Take the Colorado pickup, for example, which comes in a rough-and-tumble ZR2 off-road variant. Last spring, one ZR2 owner had his vehicle’s side curtains deploy while travelling down a forestry service road in low range at approximately 3 mph. The pop came while the vehicle was not an an extreme angle, the owner insists. Repairs came to $6,500 and the company wouldn’t disclose the reason for the deployment, minus a rep claiming (according to the owner), “the airbags will deploy BEFORE there’s a rollover and they can’t control the threshold or tell me when that is.”

Other Colorado side curtain deployments appeared in videos and news reports last year, including incidents occurring during purposeful off-roading (and one during a Kelley Blue Book test). In response, a GM spokesperson told Jalopnik, “We are aware of this situation happening on rare occasions. The reason it would occur is that head-curtain airbags are designed to deploy if the sensing system predicts that the vehicle is about to roll on its side.”

The body of evidence that GM’s sensors are just a bit too sensitive is only growing.

[Images: General Motors]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Wow. GM slides further and further down the irrelevance pole. Disgusting quality F-ups that put peoples lives in danger. It almost as if new GM didnt learn from old GM. Oh wait....

    • Highdesertcat Highdesertcat on Jan 18, 2019

      I honestly don't see how GM can slide any further down the relevance pole since they've been at the bottom of the pole for quite a while already. And the people whose lives were endangered, chose badly. Hey, I used to be a GM fan, but I have evolved. Left the fold.

  • Jeff S Jeff S on Jan 20, 2019

    Let's limbo some more. How low can you go GM? GM still has some room to reach the depths of Sears and Kmart.

  • Dukeisduke Is the Volvo EX30 even on sale yet? It was pulled from the NACTOY awards because they were having software problems with the vehicle.
  • Wjtinfwb If you've only got 5k to spend on transportation, I cannot imagine a worse way to spend it than on a GM orphan from Sweden that's 15 years old with 150k on the clock and limited plus expensive parts availability and dwindling techs who'd even want to work on it. Go find a similar vintage Camry or Accord with 150k miles or even a Ford or a Chevy, whatever. Hell, even an old Jaguar is less of a crapshoot than a Saab. At least you can still get parts.
  • Kwik_Shift Brands that were considered from China include BYD, Dayun, Great Wall Motors, Maxus, Nio, Omoda/Chery, Seres, XPeng, and Zeekr. KG Mobility from South Korea also made the list of candidates.That's a lot of car companies from there ready to head here.
  • Analoggrotto Clean sweep and unanimous victory for the world affluence engine of 22nd century : Hyundai/Kia/Genesis. Toyota and Lexus, for 120 years of history have not been able to capture the zenith superlative status of Hyundai Motor Corporation the most awarded, decorated and revered automotive corporation in the history of historical. Featuring best ever, first ever and greatest ever e-ATPs the Hyundai Genesis Kia lineup is posed to become the envy of every country club, ivy league college and fortune 500 corporation in the world. I've been taking a roadtrip in my loaner Elantra N, visiting colleges from east to west, elite universities of higher learning to inspect their parking lots. WHat did I find? Leagues of Genesis models, outnumbering Lexus 3 to 1. When I interviewed faculty and staff at these places of greater learning, their response was unanimous : they chose HMC for the ATPs.
  • Mikey 2019 Chevy Impala Premier FWD with 20 inch factory Bridgestones. I'm looking at replacing tires at the 65,000 KLM's (40,000 miles ) mark ....It doesn't thrill me .. I'm pricing Michelin Cross Climate 2 tires ouch !! ..Up here in Canuckastan ....Big $$$$$
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