Yahoo Autos Ford Bronco five-door recalled over hard-to-reach seatbelt latches
As with a few other vehicles on the market, the Ford Bronco is having a hard time staying out of the principal's office. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration performed an audit on Ford's point vehicle for the off-road sector, and didn't like the math on the seatbelt latches for the driver and front passenger. A section on “Occupant Crash Protection" in the book of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS No. 208 S7.4.4), contains a subsection covering "Latch Plate Access." The subsection basically lays out how easy it should be for driver and passenger to reach over their shoulders for the seatbelt latch plate (the part that goes into the buckle), and mandates that the latch plate shouldn't be crammed between vehicle trim or furniture.
Turns out that in the five-door Bronco, but not the two-door Bronco, the latch plate isn't given enough room between the seat back and interior trim for easy access. The worry is that driver and passenger will simply not wear the belts instead of possibly needing to fish for them, hence the recall.
Ford said the 175,550 five-door Broncos involved in the recall were built between September 23, 2020, and May 9, 2023. Every one of them is expected to suffer from the issue. The breakdown by model year is:
