5,500 seatbelt complaints across 754 vehicles. The big patterns here: seatbelt buckle assemblies that don't latch reliably, retractor failures (the belt won't retract or won't pull out), and pretensioner faults (the small explosive charge that tightens the belt during a crash). NHTSA takes seatbelt complaints seriously because the consequences of failure are immediate. Several recalls have been issued specifically for seatbelt buckle and retractor problems on Honda, Ford, and Hyundai models. The vehicles ranked below have seatbelt complaints as a notable pattern. If you own one of these and the buckle's been getting harder to latch or the belt's been sticking, take it to a dealer — many of these issues are covered under recall and the repair is free. Even outside recall, seatbelt buckle replacement is typically a $150-$400 fix that's worth doing for safety reasons alone.
Seatbelts problems
5,500 owner complaints filed with NHTSA. 237 active recall campaigns.
Seatbelts problems by manufacturer 15 makes with aggregated detail
Drill into a single manufacturer's seatbelts record across all model years. Each page below carries data on the worst-affected year-models, active recalls, and editorial commentary from one of our contributors.
Worst-affected vehicles Top 25 by complaint volume
Most-recalled vehicles For seatbelts components
Recent owner reports 12 most recent in this category
This is a Base model automobile with manual seats. The right front passenger seat unlocked without warning during a quick deceleration. The seat slid forward on mounting rails and caused the front passenger to be squished between forward motion of seat and the seat belt. Lucky this was not a collision, but weight of seat moving forward &…
Update to previously filed complaint number: 11608439. Safety issue has been resolved. Initial complaint was due to defective seatbelt receiver buckle. Van Hyundai Carrollton dealership and Hyundai customer service refused to repair the issue under existing warranty, both claiming the issue was not a warrantied item. Months after safety issue was…
2nd row seat belt malfunctioned during when rear ended recently. Seat belt came unlatched on my niece throwing her towards the front passenger seat. Car has been totaled. Injury was to driver.
Driver’s seatbelt buckle will no longer accept the seatbelt. The sensor for the seatbelt thinks the seatbelt is buckled as well.
The middle rear seat belt latch dropped below the fold down seat when it was folded down. This made fastening the seat belt impossible. The latch is inaccessible. Cannot bring it back up without completely removing the seat.
While driving on the highway, I noticed my seatbelt suddenly felt loose on the lap portion. I reached down to adjust and the portion that connects to the bottom of the seat was split in half.
While driving down the street, the left rear passenger had the seat belt buckle detach from the seat belt with the buckle remaining on the belt. Upon arriving at my residence I inspected the seat belts, I noticed that the right passenger belt buckle was also detached from the strap. It seams the threads where the buckle is sewn into the strap have…
The middle back passenger seat belt recoils so quickly to cause eye, face and head injuries. Blows to eyes causes severe bruising. *kb
Seatbelt issues are not the place to defer maintenance. Get them fixed at the first sign of unreliability.