Imagine driving down the road and all of a sudden your sunroof explodes. It's been happening more and more and now Consumer Reports is out with the list of the vehicle makes and models most likely to be affected.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 859 complaints of sunroofs exploding in the last 22 years, with almost three quarters happening in the last six years. The government has also received 36 reports or people being injured.
It's all enough that Consumer Reports has now put out an alert about the danger.
Consumer Reports looked at all the reports and discovered sunroofs have apparently exploded in 35 vehicle brands and 208 different models.
It's happening in some more than others. Hyundai has the most with 119 reports of explosions, followed by Ford, Nissan, Kia and Scion. The Scion tC has the most reports of any particular vehicle, with 71, followed by the Hyundai Veloster, Kia Sorento, Nissan Murano and Kia Optima.
And this is just the beginning, Consumer Reports claims this is an underreported issue with the automakers receiving far more complaints than the federal government.
There's little consistency with how vehicle companies deal with complaints and many make the owners pay for the repairs. Consumer Reports reached out to all of them and received short responses that basically said -- safety is the companies' major concern.
As for what's causing the sunroofs to explode. there's no definite answer. But sunroofs are more popular and larger than ever. Plus they're now curved and the federal government has updated standards for the glass used in them since 1996 -- long before supersized sunroofs became mainstream and the explosion reports increased.
Consumer Reports is not recommending that you avoid buying a vehicle with a panoramic sunroof altogether. But does have some advice to protect yourself financially and physically.