Abstract: An air bag assembly mountable in an automobile vehicle, which assembly includes an air bag, a pad, and a bag holder. The air bag is expandable between a folded state and a deployed state. The pad has a ceiling wall structure and a side wall structure. The ceiling wall structure is configured to cover the air bag when in the folded state and constructed and arranged to rupture when the air bag expands from the folded state to the deployed state to create a passageway which permits the air bag to deploy into an interior compartment of the vehicle. The side wall structure of the pad extends from the ceiling wall structure to define a substantially annular cross section and includes a plurality of spaced lock holes formed therein. The bag holder, which holds the air bag and the pad, includes first and second plates which are substantially horizontally and vertically oriented, respectively, when the air bag assembly is mounted in the vehicle.