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2000 SUBARU OUTBACK — Complaint #329689

Open-data reference.

NHTSA Complaint about CHILD SEAT:MATERIAL/PADDING filed January 16, 2002

NHTSA complaint #329689 (ODI reference 756626) concerns a 2000 SUBARU OUTBACK and was filed on January 16, 2002. The report was geocoded to Oregon based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as child seat:material/padding, 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. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.

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 SUBARU OUTBACK cohort independently describe similar child seat:material/padding 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 2000 SUBARU OUTBACK shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2000 SUBARU OUTBACK
Component
CHILD SEAT:MATERIAL/PADDING
State
Oregon

Complaint Description

HARNESS MATERIAL ON CAR SEAT IS TOO SOFT TO RETAIN FLAT CONFIGURATION; ROLLS UP INTO ROPE-SHAPE INSIDE SHOULDER PADS, BUNCHES AND BINDS IN HARNESS HARDWARE. SEEKING A WAY TO GET INITIATE A REPLACEMENT BY MANUFACTURER. DID CONTACT MFGR., COSCO, WHO SAID STRAPS ARE SOFT MATERIAL INTENTIONALLY FOR KIDS' COMFORT. I DON'T BUY IT; SEATBELT MATERIAL IN CARS IS SOFT, BUT DOES NOT COLLAPSE LATERALLY. IF CAR SEATBELTS FOLDED, BUNCHED AND ROLLED THIS WAY, THEY WOULD BE RECALLED IMMEDIATELY, I SUSPECT. THANKS VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENTION, AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW I CAN HELP.*AK

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 329689
ODI Number 756626
Date Filed January 16, 2002
VIN NOT APPLICA

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.