The all-new 2027 Kia Telluride has been immensely popular with families, but it’s also posed a safety risk to occupants on more than one occasion, with the headaches not over yet. After the rear seats were linked to a deadly defect, a new recall published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration warns that the driver’s seat may be the most dangerous spot in certain examples of the SUV, because the seat belt strap may not extend, becoming unusable, which could fail to restrain the driver in a crash, thus increasing the risk of injury.
Thousands of Telluride SUVs Recalled Because Seatbelts Won’t Extend
Kristen Brown/Autoblog
The NHTSA recall report announces that 6,264 2027 Telluride vehicles are affected, with 4,367 of those being the Hybrid and 1,897 being the combustion-only SUV. Kia says an error by the supplier (Samsong Mexico) is why the “driver’s seatbelt assembly may contain an incorrect vehicle sensor that, in certain conditions, causes the emergency locking retractor to lock when attempting to extend the webbing.” Thus, the seatbelt becomes unusable, and if the driver uses the vehicle anyway, they can’t be properly restrained, and so the Telluride falls foul of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 209.
Related: Kia Breaks Multiple U.S. Sales Records As Telluride Soars
Dealers have already been notified, and owners will be able to search their VINs on nhsa.gov from June 16, but remedy owner notifications are only planned for July 31, leaving affected Telluride owners without a safe SUV for almost two months. When the new component is ready, dealers will replace the driver’s seatbelt assembly with one that has the correct sensor, which should be a relatively simple and straightforward process.
Multiple Seatbelt Issues for Multiple Automakers
Kristen Brown/Autoblog
This isn’t the first time the 2027 Telluride has been recalled over seatbelt problems. In March, over 14,000 Tellurides were recalled over a center seatbelt anchor buckle that may fail to latch. Restraint systems seem to be a particular problem for the SUV, as over 85,000 examples of the 2025 Telluride were also recalled earlier this year because the seat back frames for both front seats could prove hazardous in a rear-end crash, but it’s not a problem only Kia is suffering with. Ford recently recalled almost 420,000 Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators for a similar issue with the front seatbelts, and Hyundai and Genesis recalled almost 300,000 vehicles in April over another seatbelt issue. Audi has suffered with problematic seatbelts, and so has Rivian. The seatbelt was invented by Volvo in 1959, but 67 years later, automakers and their suppliers are still making mistakes in this critical area.
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