1998 FORD WINDSTAR — Complaint #290805
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about CHILD SEAT:HARNESS BUCKLE:INFANT filed May 7, 2001
NHTSA complaint #290805 (ODI reference 744844) concerns a 1998 FORD WINDSTAR and was filed on May 7, 2001. The report was geocoded to Kentucky based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as child seat:harness buckle:infant, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same FORD WINDSTAR cohort independently describe similar child seat:harness buckle:infant failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 1998 FORD WINDSTAR shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
I PURCHASED THE EVENFLO MEDALLION CARSEAT (MODEL #2541113P1, MANUFACTURED 25FEB00). MY 16 MONTH OLD SON IS ABLE TO UNCLASP THE CHEST BUCKLE. I HAVE TO TO STOP EVERY FEW BLOCKS TO RELATCH IT. I CONTACTED EVENFLO ABOUT MY PROBLEM AND WAS TOLD THAT THE BUCKLE HAD BEEN CHANGED ON THE NEWER MODEL AND THEY WOULD SEND ME THE NEW BUCKLE. BUT, IF I USE THIS BUCKLE AND IT DOES NOT HOLD, EVENFLO WOULD ASSUME NO LIABILITY SINCE I HAD ALTERED THE HARNESS. THEY SAID THIS BUCKLE HAD NOT BEEN TESTED ON MY MODEL CARSEAT SO THEY WOULD NOT GUARANTEE ITS SAFETY ( EVEN THOUGH THEY OFFERED TO GIVE IT TO ME, INTERESTING DON'T YOU THINK?). I WAS TOLD BY THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE REP THAT THE BEST THING TO DO WOULD BE TO BUY A NEW SEAT. THIS SEAT COST ABOUT $100, AND I PURCHASED IT BECAUSE I WAS TOLD THAT A FIVE POINT HARNESS WAS THE SAFEST. I TRULY CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER SEAT ( ALTHOUGH I WILL BUY ONE IF IT IS MY ONLY RECOURSE). PLEASE ADVISE ME ON MY NEXT STEP. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.*AK
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 290805 |
| ODI Number | 744844 |
| Date Filed | May 7, 2001 |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.