If you’re the owner of a Hyundai Palisade from the 2020-2025 model years, you may want to avoid putting passengers in the rearmost seats until a new recall has been addressed. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 568,576 SUVs have a problem with their third-row side curtain airbags, which may deploy improperly, thus failing to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard #226, Ejection Mitigation. This problem increases the risk of injury to third-row occupants during certain crashes, including those that result in a rollover. Considering that this seating area is where the smallest, most fragile humans (small children) are usually sat, it’s a particularly urgent problem.
Hyundai Is Still Investigating After the Feds Flagged the Issue
According to the NHTSA recall report, the issue first came to Hyundai‘s attention in April last year, after the NHTSA conducted a routine FMVSS #226 compliance test on a 2025 Palisade. The Feds determined that “the measured displacement of the ejected hedform in the third-row seating area exceeded the 100 mm performance limit specified in the standard.” Hyundai opened an investigation alongside the NHTSA’s Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance, conducting several tests between July and November 2025. In December, Hyundai began its own compliance tests to replicate these results. The automaker evaluated various trim levels, coming to similar conclusions that ultimately led to this month’s recall. Unfortunately for concerned owners, a remedy is still in development, but at least none of the documentation published by the NHTSA points to any crashes or injuries related to the incident. Hopefully, Hyundai’s fix will come before any serious incidents.
No Cost to Owners Despite Warranty Expiration
As a noncompliance recall, Hyundai is obliged to resolve the issue at no cost to owners, and because six model years are affected and this generation of Palisade is no longer in production, that applies to cars whose warranties have expired. The bad news is that dealers and owners are only expected to be notified of a fix toward the end of March, starting on the 23rd. In the meantime, owners can check their VINs on nhtsa.gov. Owners of the all-new 2026 Palisade are not affected, but it’s been a rough few weeks for the automaker, which recently issued a recall for some 84,000 Genesis vehicles with displays that could go blank with the use of the HD Radio system. This came after the Tucson was recalled for a fire risk at the end of December.
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