Airbag failed to deploy in a crash on the 2001 Toyota Camry
14 crashes 9 injuries 23 of the 15 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.
Only 6 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When airbag failed to deploy in a crash gets reported
There are 15 reports of airbag failed to deploy in a crash on the 2001 Toyota Camry, 6 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 72,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 146,500 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, 14 a crash and 9 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 25 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 200,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 35; the 2001 has 15. 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2001 toyota camry le. While the contact's wife was driving 30 MPH a vehicle failed to yield the right of way and she was not able to stop which caused her to crash into a vehicle. The driver and passenger air bags did not deploy. The insurance company confirmed that the vehicle was destroyed and did not investigate the air bag failure. Report number 1001104565 was filed with the manufacturer and were not able to explain at what speed the air bag should deploy. The contact sustained a head injury and the other drivers right knee was injured. The san antonio police report number is 0000326. The failure and the current mileage were 125,000. Updated 03/12/10. *lj updated 10/08/10
Tl* the contact owns a 2001 toyota camry. While driving approximately 15 MPH, the driver crashed into a concrete pole. The air bags did not deploy. The driver sustained a concussion due to his head striking the windshield. In addition, he sustained bruises and cuts to the head from the broken glass. The police reported to the scene but a report was not filed. The vehicle was towed to the contact's home and was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 170,000.
I was hit by a speeding driver in cross traffic. (a lot of people a running through red lights!) the front bumper and grill area was badly damaged, right headlamp assembly was torn off and hood was buckled. My seat belt did not stop me from being thrown forward and the airbag did not deploy, causing my head to hit the windshield, breaking the glass. I received medical attention for my head injury. Two safety systems that failed. My car has been "totaled" by the insurance company. *js
Also reported on the 2001 Toyota Camry
Other engine problem
Other speed control problem
Other body or interior problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Other suspension problem
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 15 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 15 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 2001 Toyota Camry?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 145,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. 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 2001 Toyota Camry?
15 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.1 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