2000 PONTIAC MONTANA — Complaint #338199
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about CHILD SEAT:HARNESS BUCKLE:INFANT filed March 11, 2002
NHTSA complaint #338199 (ODI reference 759091) concerns a 2000 PONTIAC MONTANA and was filed on March 11, 2002. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 15, 2000. The report was geocoded to Michigan 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: 1, 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 PONTIAC MONTANA 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 2000 PONTIAC MONTANA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THE SEAT THAT HOUSES THE INFANT SAFETY SEAT CAN BE LIFTED TO ALLOW PASSENGERS IN THE FAR BACK OF THE MINIVAN. I HAD LET MY DAUGHTER IN THE BACK SEAT AND THOUGHT I HAD LOCKED THE SEAT BACK IN PLACE. I THEN BUCKLED MY 15 MONTH OLD DAUGHTER INTO THE 5 POINT RESTRAINT, BUILT-IN CAR SEAT. WHILE DRIVING, WE CAME TO A QUICK STOP AND THE ENTIRE SEAT FLEW FORWARD, HITTING MY DAUGHTER'S HEAD ON THE SEAT IN FRONT OF HER. SHE SUSTAINED AN ABRASION TO HER FOREHEAD AND VOMITTED IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE IMPACT. SHE HAS HAD NO FURTHER PROBLEMS. I AM CONCERNED THERE IS NO WARNING ON THE SEAT THAT HOUSES THE CHILD SAFETY SEAT TO LET YOU KNOW WHETHER IT HAS BEEN LOCKED IN PLACE. THE SEAT IS HEAVY AND EVEN WITH PULLING FORWARD, IT MAY SEEM LOCKED. THERE SHOULD BE SOME WAY TO CONFIRM THIS SEAT IS LOCKED IN PLACE. *AKY
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 338199 |
| ODI Number | 759091 |
| Date Filed | March 11, 2002 |
| Failure Date | August 15, 2000 |
| VIN | 1GMDU03E7YD |
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.