Back in May 2023, the Corolla Cross was recalled to the tune of 96,007 due to front passenger airbags that may not deploy as intended. The root cause? According to Toyota, a manufacturing error in the instrument panel where the airbag is located.
In early May 2023, a Toyota employee observed that a portion of the instrument panel manufacturing process had been performed out of sequence by the supplier. The supplier in question is Alabama-based Vuteq, and the reason it's based in Alabama is that Toyota makes the Corolla Cross in Huntsville.
Subsequent investigations revealed that certain panels were missing the perforation for the front passenger airbag on the underside of said instrument panels. How come? As it happens, certain steps of the production work process for milling the perforation have been skipped. Otherwise put, a big oopsie.
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