If you're driving or shopping for a used vehicle, federal investigators have an urgent warning that could save your life.
Dangerous and substandard Chinese replacement air bag inflators are making their way into American cars, and they're turning survivable crashes into deadly encounters. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says these illegal airbags have killed at least 9 U.S. drivers, including one in Arizona.
NHTSA said the most recent deaths happened in December 2025. The two victims are from Texas and Ohio.
"They're exploding like a grenade," said NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison. "These are not the right type of inflators for airbags or the vehicle itself, so they're overpowering and they're exploding."
Morrison said the faulty airbags are throwing deadly shrapnel into drivers' faces and chests during crashes that should have been survivable.
Morrison said, "When you think about an airbag you have an inflator module that’s packed with an explosive and it’s attached to an airbag itself and when you’re in a crash, there’s a very brief period of time where that airbag goes off with a great deal of force... It's intended to reach you before you’re able to propel yourself forward too much."
All the affected vehicles were previously in crashes and had their original airbags replaced with the illegal Chinese parts when they were repaired as salvaged vehicles.
"The vehicles that we're aware of are Hyundai Sonatas and Chevy Malibus, but we don't have a great deal of confidence that these are the only affected vehicles," Morrison said.
The Arizona driver who died was reportedly in a 2017 Hyundai Sonata. The death occurred about a year ago.
Morrison says NHTSA is investigating how these Chinese parts are ending up in American cars, despite being illegal to import.
"This Chinese company has told us they do not make these available, these are illegal to bring into the United States, so somebody is illegally importing them into the U.S.," Morrison said.
What drivers need to do now
If you bought a used car in the last 5 years, check your vehicle history report immediately.
"The most important thing you can do is take a look at your vehicle's history report—if you got one when you purchased the vehicle, that's great, if not, buy one today," Morrison said.
If your vehicle has a salvaged title, you need to get it inspected by a trusted mechanic right away.
"You need to stop driving right away and get that airbag inflator replaced," Morrison said.
No recall exists for these airbag inflators because the parts aren't supposed to be in the U.S. in the first place. That's why this remains an active federal investigation.
What makes this situation particularly frightening is there's no way to know exactly which vehicles are affected or how many are on the road.
If you think your airbag might be affected, you can report the issue to your local FBI Field Office, local Homeland Security office, and NHTSA. You can also call NHTSA’s Vehicle Safety Hotline at
888-327-4236 (Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET).
NHTSA has alerted the auto repair industry to be on the lookout for dangerous inflators and to notify NHTSA.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
