General Motors and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have issued a recall for a very small number of 2020 Corvette Stingray models over an issue with the mid-engine sports car’s driver side seatbelt retractor.
The problem: according to the NHTSA filing, the driver’s side seat belt retractor in affected 2020 Corvette models “may not lock as intended during a crash,” for undisclosed reasons.
The hazards: the automaker says there is an increased risk of injury to the driver if the seatbelt fails to properly lock in the event of a crash. The filing did not say if any injuries or accidents have been traced back to this problem.
The fix: GM says dealers will replace the driver’s side seat-belt retractor in affected 2020 Corvette models. These repairs will be done at no cost to the owner.
Affected components: seatbelt, seatbelt retractor.
Affected vehicles:
- 2020 Chevrolet Corvette
Number of affected vehicles: somewhat surprisingly, only five vehicles are affected by this recall. It is not clear why such a small number of 2020 Corvette models left the Bowling Green Assembly plant with defective seatbelt retractors.
Owners should: owners are advised to wait for GM to get in contact with them, at which point they will be instructed to make an appointment at a dealership. The recall is expected to begin on November 9th, 2020. Owners with questions or concerns can contact Chevrolet customer service using the contact information below. Affected owners can also search all recall actions or campaigns that may be active on their vehicle by punching their VIN into the dedicated GM Owner Center landing page.
Contacts:
- Chevrolet Customer Service: 1-800-222-1020
- Chevrolet recall number: N202307690
- NHTSA campaign number: 20V581000
- NHTSA Toll-Free: 1-888-327-4236
- NHTSA (TTY): 1-800-424-9153
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Comments
The 573 report on NHTSA’s site explains the whole story. It’s a ZF (TRW) product, it was a manufacturing defect, and it failed during a crash test of a 2023 prototype. There were more suspect units built, they just ended up in GM-owned vehicles (i.e prototypes, press demos, fast feedback employee cars), and weren’t sold to the public.
This sort of situation always happen as General Motors need to work with more reliable subcontractors to avoid this sort of issue as it happens to everyone from Defense contractors who give contracts to companies that promise the best pricing.
Such a miniscule number of seat belt retractors shows that part suppliers or an incorrect assembly procedure are responsible. With a first year car, this is to be expected. It is easily corrected and thus no interruption in production is likely to be needed. Still when all facts are reviewed and the results tabulated, there have been remarkably few of these types of problems with the new Corvette. Keep them coming, please.