Volkswagen in Europe will recall about 75,000 of its VW Polo, Seat Ibiza & Seat Arona cars after a seatbelt fault was exposed by a Finnish car magazine during a test drive session. The test drive in Finland showed that when 3 passengers were in the back seats and the car turned sharply, the centre-rear seatbelt failed.
VW said the tests were under “exceptional” conditions and had not been replicated or reported elsewhere. UK based consumer group ‘Which’ questioned why Volkswagen had sold close to 55,000 additional cars with a “potentially lethal fault” since the problem was first identified in May this year.
An earlier cable tie solution and an “informal recall” were rejected by regulators. Alex Neill, who is the head of home products and services at ‘Which’, said: “The decision not to suspend sales when the problem was discovered has now put substantially more drivers, as well as their passengers, at risk.” Nobody has been injured because of the fault.
Volkswagen Group has issued a statement saying its affected customers would be contacted to send their affected cars to VW dealers to arrange the seatbelt fix, free of charge.
