The Kia Borrego probably isn’t a vehicle you’ve thought about recently, right? The peculiar SUV known as the Mohave in South Korea but sold as the Borrego elsewhere only existed in the mainland U.S. for a single model year and is the subject of a new recall campaign from Kia.
The recall impacts a total of 22,700 2009 Kia Borrego models that were produced for the U.S. market between May 2, 2008 and January 20, 2009. In addition, all 68 examples from the 2010-2014 model years that were sold in U.S. Territories are embroiled in this recall.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) notice reveals that insufficient adhesive may have been applied to secure the headliner plates to the headliner. This means that the headliner plates may detach from the headliner when the side curtain airbags are deployed, increasing the risk of injury.
Read: Hyundai And Kia Recall Millions Of Cars In The U.S. Over Fire Risks
This isn’t the first time a Kia model has been recalled for this issue. In August last year, 2012-2013 Optima models were recalled over the same fault. Subsequent investigations quickly revealed that the Borrego’s headliner plates could detach and while the cause of the missing adhesive remains a mystery, tests performed by the Hyundai America Technical Center confirmed the presence of the fault. Kia is aware of one customer complaint related to the issue but does not know of any injuries or deaths caused by it.
Kia will inform dealerships of the recall on November 27 while owners will be notified from November 30 via first class mail. Owners will be instructed to bring their vehicle to a Kia dealer where industrial-grade adhesive tape will be added over the left and right headliner plates to better secure them to the headliner.
