On roads across the United States, high-riding crossovers and SUVs have largely overtaken minivans and sedans as family vehicles.
According to figures published by Kelley Blue Book, 15 out of the 25 top-selling vehicles in 2023 are crossovers or SUVs and include some well-known vehicles such as the Subaru Forester, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Honda CR-V, and Tesla’s Model Y.
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Among the best-selling brands is Hyundai; its Tucson SUV was the 15th best-selling car last year, selling 209,624 units.
However, a federal probe is being conducted into another one of the South Korean automakers’ bestsellers because of a scary defect that can cause harm to passengers.
2023 Hyundai Palisade
Hyundai
Hyundai’s Palisade problem
According to a report by Automotive News, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into the Hyundai Palisade, a three-row mid-size SUV.
The federal agency says it received 37 complaints about second-row latched seatbelts “inadvertently” becoming unlatched when the vehicle is in motion. In documents related to the complaint, 332,288 Palisades between the 2020-to-2023 model years could be affected by the defect.
“The complaints allege that without warning, the seat belts sometimes inadvertently unlatch, increasing the risk of injury due to full loss of seat belt protection in the event of a crash,” the NHTSA said in its preliminary investigation document.
A scary situation
Owners have reported seatbelt unlatching while driving for a while. In a post on the Palisade Forum owner’s forum in December 2022, a Palisade owner named Praveen wrote that the occurrence has them looking for a new car.
“Once this happened while driving the seat belt popped out and I had to stop the vehicle to fix it,” Praveen said.
“The seat belt appears to be weak and will not stay locked in and will certainly not stay locked in under pressure. The second row buckles have me ready to trade my car in.”
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Additionally, Reddit users on a thread talking about the defect on the subreddit r/HyundaiPalisade noted that they are also experiencing this issue.
Owner u/shanleeraeann said that one seat belt in the second row of their Palisade shows signs of the defect but that they had a negative experience when they tried to bring it up with the Hyundai dealer.
“We have one second row seat belt that does it. Had it to Hyundai and they said nothing wrong, couldn’t duplicate,” the Reddit user said. “We just make sure that we really slam it in and pull a couple times to make sure it isn’t going to pop out. Bring it up with your service department so there’s record even if they don’t “find anything wrong””.
Another owner and Reddit user, u/vichen13 said that they were experiencing this issue on their “daughter’s seat,” and thought that “it was because she didn’t push hard enough.”
“I’m moving my kids to the third row!,” u/vichen13 said.
The document released by NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) does not give any explicit direction towards a recall, as it is currently investigating the matter’s scope and severity.
Currently, there is no known fix for the issue, but the NHTSA’s ODI will decide whether to issue a recall for the affected cars.
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