2012 Mercedes-Benz Slk Class

The 2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK Class has 2 recalls, both centering on the passenger seat sensor that can misread who or what is in the front seat, leaving the airbag in the wrong state for a crash.

The sensor can fail in either direction: it may mistake a rear-facing child seat for a small adult, leaving the passenger airbag armed when it should be off, which risks serious injury to a child in a crash. It can also read a small adult as an empty child seat, switching the airbag off and leaving that passenger without frontal protection if a crash occurs. In either case, the dashboard warning light may not reflect what the system has actually done, so the driver has no reliable way to know the airbag is misconfigured.