BMW is well-known for its sporty and luxurious cars, but BMW’s not perfect by any means. Like many other automakers, it’s had its fair share of troubles, and some of those issues are more dangerous than others. Here’s a look at the most recent recall involving BMWs and their airbag issues. 

Almost 2,000 BMWs are affected

According to Car Complaints, BMW is recalling roughly 1,960 cars due to an issue with their head-thorax airbags. The German automaker is still investigating the cause of this issue, but as crash tests showed, these cars’ head-thorax airbags may not deploy properly during a crash. With that being said, according to Car Complaints, this issue with those airbags only seems to be happening when the vehicle gets involved in a side-impact crash. 

BMW first realized this issue, according to Car Complaints, in January 2021. However, Car Complaints wrote that the automaker thought that U.S. models weren’t affected because BMW thought that the issue had to do with how European head-thorax airbags were designed. But this issue occurred again in another side-impact crash test in March 2021, and so the company decided to play it safe and issue a recall.

All 1,960 cars that are being recalled are 4 Series convertibles. In particular, Car Complaints wrote that BMW is recalling the 2021 430i and the 2021 M440i models for this airbag issue. About 1,850 of these recalled vehicles are in America while the rest are in Canada.

Why this issue is serious and what owners can do

Obviously, airbags are an important safety feature, and if they work correctly, then they can save lives in the event of a crash. If those BMW airbags aren’t deploying correctly, however, then when a crash happens, the driver and the passengers may suffer the consequences. Fortunately, though, as Car Complaints said, no crashes nor injuries have been associated with the issues related to these head-thorax airbags not deploying properly. 

As BMW is still investigating why this issue is happening in the first place, it may be a while before anyone gets any answers. Regardless, it’s still concerning that this is happening to 2021 models of the 4 Series, as customers may be expecting the latest cars to be the safest cars. That said, since it is the most recent model, very few affected cars have been sold thus far, so not that many people are really affected by this recall. 

Furthermore, like Car Complaints said, since BMW is still figuring out why it’s happening, The automaker also doesn’t know how to fix it just yet. So, until BMW figures everything out, owners of these affected BMWs may want to keep their vehicle parked for now. 

An overview of the 2021 BMW 4 Series

This airbag recall is the latest blemish on the BMW 4 Series, which isn’t exactly the most popular model on the market in the automaker’s lineup at the moment. To be fair to the car, the 4 Series does come with a very capable engine. The 430i gets a 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4 that gets 255 hp, while the M440i gets a 3.0-liter I-6 that gets 382 hp. Either engine, when paired with the 4 Series’ handling abilities, makes it a very sporty car, to say the least.

However, the main issue with the 4 Series had to do with its looks, which disappointed many Beemer fans. In particular, fans criticized the design of the 4 Series’ grille. Looks aside though, at a price tag of about $53,000 for the convertible version, the 2021 4 Series is a relatively affordable luxury car. But of course, until BMW figures out that head-thorax airbag issue, it may not be the best car to drive around.