Airbag failed to deploy in a crash on the 2006 Kia Spectra
10 crashes 8 injuries 18 of the 10 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 2006 Kia Spectra report airbag failed to deploy in a crash at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 72,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 1,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 120,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 118,833 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
50% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,467 miles | 8,000 miles | 65,300 miles | 105,000 miles | 120,300 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, 10 a crash and 8 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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2005, at a median of 1,700 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 14; the 2006 has 10. 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.
Dt*: the contact stated while driving 45 MPH the vehicle rear ended another vehicle that had stopped without warning. This was a full front to rear incident. There was pre impact braking, the wheels locked up on the vehicle causing it to skid into the rear of the stopped vehicle. The air bag did not deploy. Seat belts were in use and no injuries were sustained. There was a police report filed at the scene. The vehicle was towed to an independent repair and is awaiting inspection.
Dt*: the contact stated while traveling 60 MPH, the vehicle was involved in a side impact collision with another vehicle on normal road conditions. The passenger side airbag did not deploy. Four occupants in the vehicle sustained minor to moderate seatbelt injuries. All the occupants were wearing their seatbelts. A police report was taken. There were no warning prior to the incident. The vehicle was towed to a storage lot. The manufacturer was notified and sent an inspector to investigate. The inspector determined that a copy of the investigation report could be released.
Tl*the contact owns a 2006 kia spectra. While driving 40 MPH, the vehicle crashed into a ditch and flipped over. The air bags failed to deploy. The road conditions were rainy and muddy. The vehicle was destroyed. The dealer has not inspected the vehicle. The contact sustained neck and back injuries along with cuts and scratches. The current and failure mileages were 10,000. The consumer stated the vehicle was damaged in the front but the air bags did not deploy. Updated 09/05/07 *tr
Also reported on the 2006 Kia Spectra
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Other body or interior problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Other engine problem
Other fuel system problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 10 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 2006 Kia Spectra?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 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 2006 Kia Spectra?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 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