If there's one piece of safety equipment you want to have working during an accident, it's your seatbelt. General Motors however, recently discovered a defect on its 2011 Cadillac SRX, Chevy Equinox, and GMC Terrain SUVs that could cause the seatbelt not to function properly.
2011 Cadillac SRX, Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Terrain
The Problem: GM discovered a seatbelt defect on certain 2011 Cadillac SRX, Chevy Equinox, and GMC Terrain SUVs that could cause the seatbelt buckle to fracture in the event of an accident. If the buckle fractures during an accident, it won't restrain the occupants as designed and could result in serious injury. The defect involves a tab designed to prevent the buckle from rotating, but which may instead actually break the buckle. Only the front seatbelt buckles are affected.
The Fix: Owner notification letters will be sent out on January 18, 2011, and ask owners of affected vehicles to bring it to a dealership. The dealers will then identify which seat(s) needs to be worked on and remove it (them). After removing the seat, the dealer will remove the seatbelt buckle and pound the anti-rotation tab into the slot it was originally cut from.
Number of Vehicles Potentially Affected: 97,843 2011 Cadillac SRX, Chevrolet Equinox, and GMC Terrain SUVs. All of the Cadillacs need to have work done, but only certain Chevy and GMC vehicles are affected.