Nearly a quarter-million GM vehicles -- including this 2010 Buick Enclave -- are covered by the recall.
Potentially defective second-row seatbelts have led to a recall order from General Motors involving nearly a quarter-million of its most popular crossover-utility vehicles, the automaker has announced.
In all, the move impacts 243,403 2009 and 2010-model Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook CUVs, all sharing the same underlying platform and key components – including the suspect seatbelts.
The situation involves a belt latch that can inadvertently be released under certain conditions – meaning a passenger would not be properly constrained during a crash. It is also possible that the belt buckle could receive cosmetic damage, even the latch functions properly, under certain circumstances, according to GM.
“Because of the potential for a false-latch condition,” said Jeff Boyer, GM executive director of safety, “we want customers to return their vehicles to have the recall repair performed as soon as possible.”
The automaker began investigating the problem early this year and though it only has three reports of the rear seat belts not functioning properly it decided to order a recall. It blames a change made by one of its suppliers.
The automaker plans to notify customers by mail to visit the appropriate dealerships. Service technicians will inspect the vehicles to see if a replacement is needed.
In all, 207,000 vehicles sold in the U.S. are covered by the recall; the rest of the 243,000 were sold in Canada and other parts of the world but will also be recalled.