Nissan Add Jalopnik on Google: Google Discover Automobile assembly has been automated and optimized for quite some time now. The automation is so ubiquitous that it might be fair to assume that silly mistakes like, say, installing airbags with the wrong bolts, never happen anymore. Naturally, though, like most assumptions, that would be a bad one to make. Nissan has issued a recall on 149 Altimas after it spent two days last December building the sedan with incorrect airbag bolts. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's recall report, the affected cars were 2025 model year Altimas built precisely on December 1 and 2, 2025, at the company's Canton Assembly Plant in Mississippi. The front passenger main airbag and knee airbag were put together using "non-conforming mounting bolts." Per the specified part number in question and the chronological report, it has to do with a hinge bolt destined for the Frontier pickup that a factory worker unintentionally picked up and put on Altimas instead. They reviewed the footage Nissan As reported by Carscoops, a repair technician noticed the discrepancy, and the plant conducted a yard audit that found wrong bolts in all 96 cars it inspected. Nissan says its investigation used both material handling records and production video footage. The company then spent the first half of this year doing calculations and testing that determined that the difference in bolt usage indeed "may not maintain the required load-carrying capacity if yielding occurs during airbag deployment." It then decided to do a recall on August 5 "out of an abundance [of] caution." The company is not aware of any warranty claims, accidents, or injuries related to these airbags. Affected cars will get recall notices, and dealers will replace all four incorrect bolts free of charge. The Altima made headlines in July after a report said that it would be discontinued after 2026. That turned out to be premature, though, because a subsequent statement from the company said that it would live on for the 2027 model year. Let's hope those 2027 models get the right airbag bolts every single production day.
