What 413 owners told NHTSA about the 2021 Hyundai Palisade Hybrid Hev

The seat belt buckle in the 2nd row and 3rd row seats are too low and put a high back booster and occupants at risk. My son is at the correct height and weight to transition into a high back booster and he and I are struggling to get the metal latch into the buckle. It’s extremely hard to determine if the seat belt latches correctly into the buckle because no click noise is heard. The buckle should raise out of the base of the seat at least another inch or two to allow children and adults to buckle safely.

NHTSA ODI 11608902

Second row passenger side seat belt would come undone while driving. This would usually happen while under pressure rounding corners. Addressed with dealership during routine maintenance. Buckle was replaced and have not had any issues since.

NHTSA ODI 11608430

Front passenger and both captain chairs seatbelts will unlatch on their own. Windshield wipers when on automatic setting will turn on with no precipitation on windshield. Generally when the steering is turned slightly left. Both issues have happened multiple times over the past 4 years of ownership.

NHTSA ODI 11607964

The seat belt in the 2nd row where my child sits, comes unlatched while driving. Happened in the driver seat as well. This is a major safety concern given they come unlatched without pressure. We always double check now that we pull it after inserting to double check it is all the way in and it still has happened. It has not been inspected by manufacturer or dealership yet. Just bought used from a dealership in December (5 months ago). The vehicle is available upon request for inspection at anytime. The seat belt light alarms when it becomes unlatched. It’s been happening for a few months- I initially thought my child wasn’t clicking it in all the way but even after double checking it myself and when it happened in the driver seat this week- I believe it is not user error. I’ve searched online and saw other complaints of this same issue.

NHTSA ODI 11590873

The passenger side seat belt in the 2nd row repeatedly becomes unbuckled once driving. This has happened with adults and children sitting the the seat and has happened over an extended period of time. This is a major safety issue if it were to unlock during an accident.

NHTSA ODI 11588677

2nd row passenger seat belt, releases randomly, and or takes multiple attempts to get it to connect and hold. The seat belt is available for inspection. Children / Passenger safety at risk if belt detaches in an accident Issue has been reported to dealer multiple times, dealer fails to act. They have not replicated the issue because they will not schedule an appointment to address it and have ignored the request during standard oil change appointments. Component has not been expected by others There were nowaring lamps or messages when incident occurs

NHTSA ODI 11586730

In the second row seat the seat belts come unbuckled at spontaneous times. Often while driving. Sometimes multiple times in the same trip. It’s worse on my son’s seat where he has a booster and it happens to my daughter sometimes too, she’s not in a booster. It’s been going on for a few years. It’s very stressful. If you apply pressure (like leaning forward) it will happen too. This is after we have buckled heard the click and applied pressure to ensure locking. I noted the last time but this has been an ongoing issue. The dealer is. It helpful and says nothing is wrong.

NHTSA ODI 11585675

I have noticed while driving my seat belts in passenger and driver side will come un latched while driving.

NHTSA ODI 11575522

Front driver seatbelt, rear passenger seat belt, rear middle seatbelt do not stay latched or become unlatched while driving. Taken to two different dealerships who state they could not replicate the issues.

NHTSA ODI 11575360

2nd row seatbelts do not fully secure in place and remain locked. This happens repeatedly with different individuals indicated a mechanism failure rather than user error

NHTSA ODI 11569197

Seat belts do not fully latch despite being inserted fully. It takes multiple attempts to get the tongue to latch into the buckle. This has happened to three separate individuals from my household across multiple instances, and has impacted the driver seat belt buckle, front passenger belt buckle, and second row passenger belt buckles. There are many reports of this happening to other consumers (a quick google search of “Hyundai palisade seatbelt issues” brings up multiple complaints).

NHTSA ODI 11568269

The second row seatbelts do not reliably latch. The belts will click closed and the bell indicator will stop beeping when the seatbelt is engaged but it often pops out within minutes or while driving. This is extremely dangerous as my children are essentially driving in a car with no seat belt. My children have now been trained to latch the belt and yank on it to verify. This has reduced incidents as it will usually yank out when they pull hard, but sometimes this is not enough and the seat belt will unlatch later while driving down the road. This has been reported to the Hyundai dealership and they ignore the issue when they can't reproduce it in the shop.

NHTSA ODI 11566483

Within the last few months (car is 3 yrs old), the second-row, left-side seatbelt will randomly come unbuckled. The passenger clicks the seatbelt in, and within a few minutes, it pops out. Sometimes happens multiple times on one trip. Happens with lots of different people and didn't use to happen, so it is not user error. I'm worried that it will not hold up in an accident. No warning lights, messages, or other symptoms. I have it booked in to get repaired at the dealer but I'm skeptical they'll be able to fix it. I have found multiple people online with the same problem and they haven't been able to get it fixed. The problem does not appear to be able to be reproduced.

NHTSA ODI 11566107

The second row seat belt is weak and unbuckles suddenly. My child's seatbelt will unclick spontaneously after driving. It is a hassle to click when putting seatbelt on. Big safety hazard for family members sitting in second row seat as they are left unprotected during an accident.

NHTSA ODI 11564140

The rear captain's chair seat belt on the driver's side of the vehicle does not latch properly. There have been multiple occasions where my kids buckle and then the buckle comes undone while we are driving. I initially thought the kids were not buckling properly, so I investigated myself and still found that the seat belt clicks but doesn't stay latched. It is not 100% of the time, so it can still latch and stay latched, but with it being a seat my kids ride in, anything less than 100% is not acceptable.

NHTSA ODI 11558785

The 2nd row seatbelt located on the left driver side is malfunctioning. The seatbelt will spontaneously come unbuckled while the passenger is buckled up and the vehicle is in motion. The problem has been reproduced more then I count when my children are riding in the car. The seatbelt spontaneously malfunctions and unbuckles. The passenger seatbelt will alarm on the dash until the passenger has engaged the buckle again. The buckle has been like this since I purchased the car. I used to think my son was just fooling around and unbuckled his seatbelt, but he’d swear up and down he didn’t unbuckle and that the seatbelt came unbuckled on its own. I have three children and all of them have had the seatbelt come unbuckled while riding in the 2nd row seat on the drivers side. This occurs at least 1x per week and happens within the first 15 -30 minutes of driving. The seatbelt unbuckling is a safety risk to everyone of my children who sit in that seat. The safety and security of my children are at risk and the dealership where I bought the car has been no help. The dealership disregarded my concerns when I asked how to report my safety concern and said to make sure they push down when they buckle.

NHTSA ODI 11557506

The rear seat belts in the captain chairs unbuckle without any action from the passengers, no force or impact, etc. Just mid-drive, they release from the buckle.

NHTSA ODI 11556737

In the second row, the middle seat belt will not retract.

NHTSA ODI 11554173

Rear passenger seat belt has come unbuckled at least 6 times while driving. The chimes/alert will start going off. This happens randomly (no hard braking, etc occurring prior to seat belt coming unbuckled). At this point, we are not allowing anyone to sit in this seat due to the safety concerns. We've taken the vehicle in twice to the Hyundai dealership and they were not able to reproduce the issue the first time. The second time, they didn't test it as they wanted to keep the vehicle for a couple days. No warning messages etc occurred prior to the seat belt coming unbuckled-only after the fact.

NHTSA ODI 11523796

When locking in the seat belt it will click and lock and a few seconds later will unlock. 4 of the seats are doing this, including the front seats and once the seatbelt pops out, unlocking we are usually driving down the road and its dangerous to try and pull over and get it locked in place again just for it to unlock a few minutes later. . The seat belt appears to be weak and will not stay locked in and will certainly not stay locked in under pressure. Then when it unlocks the bells start going off and it's complete chaos and dangerous when driving to try and deal with that stress, also knowing we are no longer buckled.

NHTSA ODI 11493904

In the middle row captain's chairs, the seat belts constantly come unbuckled even while moving... I've had 11 adults and nine children sitting in those middle rows- All having the same issue including myself when I allowed someone else to drive my vehicle. Nobody even has to push the red button. It just will suddenly unbuckle by itself. I brought to the dealership and they were not able to replicate the problem but they only drove around the parking lot for a few minutes... This has been happening since I owned it in April of 2021. First incident was probably around 3,000 mi on my car and now I'm at 26,000 miles and still having the same problem... And since they couldn't fix it, I ended up trading the vehicle in and waiting for a new one to ship from South Korea

NHTSA ODI 11458865

2nd row captains chair seatbelts are very hard to click together. The receiving end of the seat belt is recessed very far into the chair, that it's hard to get the belt portion to click into place.

NHTSA ODI 11458380

The seat belt latch the right front passenger won’t receive the metal fitting. Took to dealer they could not repair. Glad to order a part after 1 week the said the part was back ordered and they did not know when it would arrive. Talked to Hyundai and filed a complaint. After 1 week they called back with no answer. This is a safety issue if someone rides in the front passenger seat they cannot be buckled in. There are a number of similar complaints in Hyundai owner forums. The rep from Hyundai said on the phone that Nhtsa would be concerned about this when I told him I would file a complaint

NHTSA ODI 11456875

The seatbelts in the captains chairs unbuckle by themselves. Sometimes it is hard for the seatbelt to buckle in the first place and takes multiple attempts to latch. Then as I'm driving the seatbelts will unbuckle without anyone touching them. This has happened multiple times, with different people so it cannot be attributed to human error. This is very dangerous.

NHTSA ODI 11450729

Buckle is recessed too far into the seat to properly buckle the seat belt. Resulting in seat belt not fully buckling and coming undone while vehicle is in motion of when sudden stops are made.

NHTSA ODI 11440392