Volvo issues safety recall over potentially faulty seat belt

This car maker has a long held reputation for cutting edge safety, but it has been left red-faced after a fault with the very technology it invented.

Volvo Australia has been left red faced after having to recall almost 25,000 vehicles for potentially faulty front seat belts.

It’s an embarrassing fail for the company credited with giving the world the three-point seat belt in 1959.

Volvo’s chief engineer Nils Bohlin, who used to design ejector seats for Saab fighter jets, came up with the three-point design after a relative of the chief executive had been killed in a car crash.

It’s still considered one of the most important innovations in vehicle safety and formed the basis for the Swedish brand’s repuation as a safety leader.

But Nils would be turning in his grave at the thought that nearly every vehicle in Volvo’s line-up between 2007 and 2018 has been fitted with faulty seatbelts.

The cars involved are the S60, S80, V60, V60 Cross Country, V70, XC60 and XC70.

The Volvo V60 wagon is part of the safety recall.

The seat belt has the potential to fail because the flexible steel cable attached to the seat belt on the outboard side might detach from the belt resulting in passengers not being restrained properly.

As is Volvo’s big S80 sedan.

If this does occur then passengers are at an increased risk of a life threatening injury if involved in an accident.

Owners will have to wait until after October for a fix because there is a delay in getting the parts.

In the meantime Volvo will write to owners and provide information on a temporary work-around to secure the front seat belts.

Once parts are available the company will alert owners who are then advised to head to their nearest dealer for a free repair.