2004 TOYOTA MATRIX — Complaint #1478661
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about AIR BAGS:FRONTAL filed June 26, 2018
NHTSA complaint #1478661 (ODI reference 11104142) concerns a 2004 TOYOTA MATRIX and was filed on June 26, 2018. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 24, 2018. The vehicle had 206,500 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as air bags:frontal, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: yes, fire: yes, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same TOYOTA MATRIX cohort independently describe similar air bags:frontal failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2004 TOYOTA MATRIX shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TAKATA RECALL - WHILE DRIVING ON A HIGHWAY, THERE WAS A SLOW UP, AND I BRAKED, BUT STOPPED RIGHT AT THE REAR BUMPER OF THE CAR IN FRONT OF ME. HOWEVER, ANOTHER CAR WAS COMING BEHIND ME AND COULDN'T STOP, OR DIDN'T NOTICE THAT TRAFFICE HAD STOPPED. HE PUSHED ME INTO THE CAR IN FRONT OF ME. AT THAT MOMENT, WHICH WAS NOT A SEVERE FRONT END HIT, I SAW FIRE, AN EXPLOSION, AND THE AIRBAG BLEW OUT THE ENTIRE DASH ON THE PASSENGER SIDE, AND FLEW TO THE BACK SEAT BEHIND THE DRIVER'S SIDE. ALSO, THE DRIVER'S SIDE AIRBAG DEPLOYED. METAL WAS FLYING OUT OF THE PASSENGER SIDE AIRBAG IN THE FRONT. WE COULD NOT BELIEVE THE DAMAGE THAT RESULTED FROM SUCH A SOMEWHAT MINOR ACCIDENT. ADDITIONALLY, THE CAR WAS TOTALED WHICH HAS BEEN A STRAIN ON US! NOW, ABOUT 30 DAYS AFTER THE ACCIDENT, WE JUST RECEIVED A CARD IN THE MAIL TELLING US OF THE RECALL. WE HAD NO IDEA THERE IS AN ONGOING PROBLEM WITH AIRBAG RECALLS! TODAY, I CHECKED ONLINE FOR THIS PROBLEM, AND FOUND MANY SITES DESCRIBING THE ISSUES. HOWEVER, M
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1478661 |
| ODI Number | 11104142 |
| Date Filed | June 26, 2018 |
| Failure Date | May 24, 2018 |
| VIN | 2T1KR32E44C |
Similar AIR BAGS:FRONTAL Complaints for 2004 TOYOTA MATRIX
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.