NHTSA Complaint #11432898 — 2014 CHEVROLET IMPALA

GM had sent a letter in March 2020 about a known defect with the passenger presence module that wires could become disconnected over time, leading to a service airbag message and the passenger airbag failing to deploy when commanded. GM stated that they would provide additional protection (read extended warranty) on this condition to be repaired at no cost within 8 years of the date the vehicle was placed in service or 80000 miles, whichever was first. My 2014 Impala just had this issue occur on July 4, 2021, and when requesting GM to perform this repair at no cost for me (vehicle mileage is 77000 miles), GM stated that this extended warranty ended January 2021. This date does not match the 8 years called out in the letter they sent, as the general public couldn't even buy this vehicle until April 1, 2013 at the very earliest. GM refuses to pay for the fix of a known defect within a critical safety system on one of their vehicles due to a poor design. Conveniently, this issue occurred on my Impala ~1-2 months after the supposed end of coverage date, even though there is nothing documenting why this date was chosen or any data that supports that this issue will only occur inside of the quoted extended warranty window in the letter. GM needs to issue a recall on this rather than an extended warranty that doesn't cover a known defect within their design/manufacturing.