The contact owns a 1996 Buick Riviera. The contact stated that the front driver side seat belt failed. The contact stated that he attempted to put the seat belt on but it failed to connect. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection but they did not provide the cause of failure, just the replacement part number. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified and they stated that the part was no longer available. The failure mileage was 76,000. The VIN was not available.

- Derwood, MD, USA

Seat belt failure: The seat belt fastener(clasp/hook) on my 1996 Buick Riviera VIN # [xxx] has failed. Insertion of the male end of the belt into the female fastener fails to result in the unit locking. Buick states they have no recall on this issue or any responsibility to repair it. The rear passenger seat belt (left side, I.e. behind driver) fails to retract the belt or snug it up after the belt is fastened. This results in more than a foot of slack belt and thus affords little protection to a passenger in the event of accident. Although there is a Buick recall on precisely this problem for this make and model car (GM 00023, dated 15 November 2000, in response to a 28 February 2000 NHTSA recall order, number 00V057000) Buick tells me it does not cover my vehicles VIN number and is also not their responsibility to repair. Since both issues clearly involve safety issues, I thought the NHTSA would be interested. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

- Monterey, CA, USA