Fiat Chrysler sure has a lot going on lately, between its on-again, off-again merger proposal with Renault to its Ram trucks hit hard with recalls. To add onto the pile, FCA is now recalling nearly 300,000 2019 Ram 1500s in the U.S. for the potential to disable their own airbags and seat-belt crash restraints.
Those are things you may need, if you’re in a crash.
That also wouldn’t go over too well if, say, another Ram from between the 2015 and 2018 model year dropped some massive item out of its potentially defective tailgate while driving in front of a newer one. We hear that’s an issue lately, too.
FCA announced the recall Friday, saying it affects 295,981 Ram 1500s in the U.S., most of which are from the 2019 model year and 26 of which are preproduction 2020 models. The recall also includes 38,884 trucks in Canada, 1,817 in Mexico and another 6,154 in markets outside of North America, the announcement said.
The problem this time is that a software error could disable the 2019 and 2020 trucks’ airbags and seat-belt pretensioners, otherwise known as the devices triggered by crash detectors to hold the seatbelt in place. Not having airbags or working seat belts in a crash isn’t great, hence the recall.
The good news, at least, is that FCA claims the potential for that to happen “is highly remote,” and that it isn’t aware of injuries related to the issue or crashes involving it. Affected owners are scheduled to find out about their predicament on July 20, and FCA said in recall documents that will reimburse anyone who’s already paid for repairs related to the issue.
But be careful out there these next couple of months, folks, because the truck recalls are on a roll right now. You just never know what may be next.