Airbag failed to deploy in a crash on the 2002 Ford Focus
16 crashes 1 fire 10 injuries 27 of the 17 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When airbag failed to deploy in a crash gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Ford Focus report airbag failed to deploy in a crash at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 35,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 72,000 miles. It is the 17th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 50,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 27,917 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
75% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22,920 miles | 29,500 miles | 31,000 miles | 37,441 miles | 50,837 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 16 a crash, 1 a fire and 10 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $1,000–$5,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2005, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 carries the most reports, with 21; the 2002 has 17. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Got in accident, air bag did not deploy. Got fixed??? Ford let me go back out on the road with a brand new safety device and it was not working properly. The time between the accident and the time I got it fixed ford was very unconcerned and did not answer any of my concerns or questions. My safety was at risk and they did nothing about it.*ak
When driving 40 MPH, the consumer swerved to miss a dog on the road, causing the consumer to hit an object on the road. This caused damage to the vehicle. Upon impact, the front air bags did not deploy. The dealership was notified, but did not resolve the problem. *ak *sc
While traveling at 50 MPH consumer's vehicle went into oncoming traffic and collided with another vehicle. Upon impact, air bags did not deploy. Both drivers sustained injuries. *ak *bf *nm
Also reported on the 2002 Ford Focus
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Other engine problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Fuel pump failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 17 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does airbag failed to deploy in a crash happen on the 2002 Ford Focus?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 35,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is airbag failed to deploy in a crash on the 2002 Ford Focus?
17 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed