— The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened what they call a "recall query" to find out if a previous Hyundai recall should be expanded.
In March of this year, Hyundai recalled 186,000 model year 2011-2013 Elantra cars because a metal bracket attached to the headliner could dislodge during a side curtain air bag deployment. The metal bracket could cause severe lacerations to a driver at the very moment the air bag should do its job by protecting the driver.
The recalled cars were repaired by using headliners with reinforced bracket attachments in the Korea-built Elantra. However, the government found 2009-2012 Hyundai Elantra Touring cars have a design and layout similar to the recalled cars. Also, the headliner manufacturing processes used were similar for both models.
The recall query will determine if additional Elantra cars need to be recalled to fix the bracket problem.
