Not all the air bags peel away.

It's mostly luck. My Camaro's dash wasn't cracked but it seems 90% of them are.

My Cutlass had the warped dash, looked terrible and my replacement one has held up fine for 2 years.

Or is this yet still another thing where the 1999 version is bad, but other years are fine.

well my 99 is NOT peeling at the airbag, BUT everywhere else

I have seen peeling on all years. Our red Alero had the problem

Do I have to remove this air bag to install one of those dash covers?

If you get a good one from the bone yard you can unbolt the top cover from the air bag unit. I believe it was 4nuts on each side. Not hard to do at all.

Are the ones from Grand Am a potential suitable exact replacement?

One on eBay also has a bad cover:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/99-00-01-02-...-/351738271322

I would assume for GM to save cost of not changing air bags for the Grand Am they would have used the same cover.

What color do you need for your car, tan or grey? I go to the bone yard all the time and I can look out for one for you.

I had a Grand AM before. I think the Grand AM had a different cover. Grand Ams don't have the airbag cover problem. Their dashes end up warping up by the windshield. I've never seen a peeling Grand Am dash, but likewise I've never seen an Alero with a warped dash.

I need gray (as per the pics) but will look in the local JY sometime.

Good article!
I had two go within the last few weeks. I let the '03 sit out without the sunshade for only 3 days, and the cover started lifting...
I'm not going to replace the whole assemblies anytime soon, so in the meantime, went to Walmart and got a half yard of suitable fabric ($3.00).
Made a pattern from aluminum foil, cut out a slightly larger piece and trimmed down. Not the exact color, but close. Beats the sticky black burlap look, anyway :)