While driving my new 2026 Toyota Sienna Woodland Edition home from the dealership on the day of purchase (XXX), I applied routine braking to stop at a yellow light. Both second-row captain's chairs, which had been slid fully rearward and left in the upright position during the dealer's cargo-space demo, and which I assumed had been properly locked, suddenly slammed forward with extreme force into the back of the front seats, and the seatbacks self-folded on impact. Notably, both chairs failed identically and simultaneously, which suggests a systemic design or manufacturing issue rather than an isolated event. Had a person or object been positioned between the chairs and the front seats, they would have been struck or crushed; any item on top of the chairs could have become airborne. My canvas bag in the cargo area was compressed by the force. Summary: the seats appeared to fail to latch/lock securely in their rearward track position. After the incident I was unable to move or release the chairs from the collapsed position, though this could have been due to my own lack of expertise on how to operate the chairs. No injuries occurred because the seats were unoccupied at the time, but this presents a serious injury risk to occupants under normal braking conditions. On XXX I took the vehicle to a second dealership, Bev Smith Toyota in [XXX], for inspection. The tech's video and resulting service invoice incorrectly claimed the seats were "unlocked" and not in the upright position at the time of the incident, stating "No problem found." I disputed this in writing, since the seats were indeed upright. I asked Bev Smith to conduct a safety test drive but the invoice does not show this was done. I asked for a demo of the seats and was shown how to lock and confirm stability, a step the average consumer might skip entirely, simply pulling the seats back and assuming they were latched, as Palm Beach Toyota had done. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
NHTSA ODI 11748875