The 1996 Pontiac Sunfire has 5 recalls, the most serious involving a throttle cable that can stick or snap and cause unwanted acceleration or a complete loss of throttle control while driving.
Two recalls involve the airbags. Water exposure can cause either the driver or passenger front airbag to deploy without a crash, which poses a serious risk to anyone seated in front of an unexpected deployment. Separately, the airbag system's calibration is set too sensitively, meaning the airbag can fire in a minor low-speed collision or even when something strikes the floor of the cabin hard enough, rather than reserving deployment for genuine crash forces. On the chassis side, one of the rear suspension trailing arm bolts can fracture while the vehicle is moving. That bolt holds the rear axle geometry in place, and if it breaks, the rear of the car can shift unpredictably and cause a crash without any warning beforehand. The electrical system also has a concern: interior lamps can switch on by themselves five to thirty minutes after the car is started and cannot be turned off manually through the switch. The lamp control module will eventually cut them after thirty minutes, but this behavior does not comply with required control identification standards and can drain the battery if the car is parked.
