Blue Bird MINI Bird Recalls & Complaints by Model Year

NHTSA lists 6 safety recalls and 2 owner complaints across 20 model years of the Blue Bird MINI Bird (1977–2006). The most-complained-about year is 2004.

Pick your Blue Bird MINI Bird model year

• 1977
• 1978
• 1987
• 1988
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997
• 1998
• 1999
• 2002
• 2003
• 2004
• 2005
• 2006

What Blue Bird MINI Bird owners complain about

Across all model years, owners have filed 2 complaints with NHTSA. The 2004 model year has the most, with 1.

• Vehicle speed control1
• Unknown or other1

All Blue Bird MINI Bird recalls (6)

Every NHTSA safety campaign that lists a Blue Bird MINI Bird, most recent first, with the model years each one covers.

1. School bus stop arm assembly (other)

   NHTSA 05V239000 Reported May 20, 2005 8,894 vehicles potentially affected BLUE BIRD BODY COMPANY

   Certain school buses originally sold in or currently registered in the following states: alaska, colorado, connecticut, delaware, idaho, illinois, indiana, iowa, kansas, kentucky, maine, maryland, massachusetts, michigan, minnesota, missouri, montana, nebraska, nevada, new hampshire, new jersey, new mexico, new york, north dakota, ohio,…

   Remedy: Blue bird will notify its customers and replace the original switch with a switch pack that is not sensitive to extreme cold weather and will inspect to ensure the microswitch heater wiring is properly connected free…

   Model years: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006

2. School bus stop arm assembly (other)

   NHTSA 05V251000 Reported May 20, 2005 3,121 vehicles potentially affected BLUE BIRD BODY COMPANY

   Certain blue bird 2002 through 2006 my all american, conventional, minibird, microbird, vision, and tc2000 school buses originally sold in or currently registered in states other than the following states: alaska, colorado, connecticut, delaware, idaho, illinois, indiana, iowa, kansas, kentucky, maine, maryland, massachusetts, michigan,…

   Remedy: Blue bird will notify all its customers of this campaign. For those buses operated in or near any of the states listed above, blue bird is encouraging the bus owners to obtain the replacement switch. For those buses…

   Model years: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006

3. Body (structure)

   NHTSA 00V219000 Reported August 17, 2000 25,839 vehicles potentially affected BLUE BIRD BODY COMPANY

   Vehicle description: school buses. These buses fail to meet the 60 percent joint strength requirements of FMVSS no. 221, "school bus body joint strength."

   Remedy: Owners will be contacted and advised to inspect each roof joint. Owners will install repair rivets in each joint found to have insufficient quantity of rivets in each examined 8 inch section.

   Model years: 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999

4. Seats

   NHTSA 99V018000 Reported June 15, 1999 41,260 vehicles potentially affected BLUE BIRD BODY COMPANY

   Vehicle description: school buses. The wall side attaching bolts for some of the passenger seats may have been installed too close to the edge of the seat ledge and in the wrong attaching hole resulting in weakening of the seat ledge at the attachment points.

   Remedy: Blue bird will furnish to distributors and owners, parts and instructions necessary to strengthen the passenger seat attachment at the wall side.

   Model years: 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999

5. Body (structure)

   NHTSA 96V073000 Reported May 3, 1996 18,000 vehicles potentially affected BLUE BIRD BODY COMPANY

   Passenger's clothing can unknowingly become caught in the forward handrails at bus doors when exiting the bus.

   Remedy: Owners will be directed to remove all forward handrails. Provisions will be made for those owners operating in states which mandate a forward handrail that a replacement handrail will be provided.

   Model years: 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996

6. Unknown or other

   NHTSA 77V238000 Reported December 28, 1977 6,000 vehicles potentially affected BLUE BIRD BODY COMPANY

   On the involved vehicles, the operating mechanism within the emergency door latch or wheel chair lift door latch could malfunction and would thus prevent the door from operating. This fails to comply with federal motor vehicle safety standard no. 217, "bus window retention and release".

   Remedy: Owners will receive replacement latch assemblies with installation instructions and will be reimbursed for labor costs. Old latches should be destroyed after removal.

   Model years: 1977, 1978

Other Blue Bird models

• All American52 complaints
• TC200038 complaints
• School Bus33 complaints
• Vision23 complaints
• Conventional14 complaints
• Blue Bird13 complaints
• Wanderlodge M450 Lxi9 complaints
• All American School Bus8 complaints

Source: NHTSA recall and complaint databases and EPA fuel economy data, October 2026. Complaint counts are owner reports to NHTSA, not verified defects. Recall counts are safety campaigns that list this model year; whether a particular car was already repaired depends on its VIN. How this data is compiled.