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1996 CHEVROLET LUMINA — Complaint #355017

Open-data reference.

NHTSA Complaint about CHILD SEAT:BASE filed May 31, 2002

NHTSA complaint #355017 (ODI reference 762338) concerns a 1996 CHEVROLET LUMINA and was filed on May 31, 2002. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 25, 2002. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as child seat:base, 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 CHEVROLET LUMINA cohort independently describe similar child seat:base 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 1996 CHEVROLET LUMINA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
1996 CHEVROLET LUMINA
Component
CHILD SEAT:BASE
State
Florida

Complaint Description

THE BASE IS NOT SAFE. THE SEAT BELT WILL NOT SECURE THE BASE TO THE SEAT PROPERLY DUE TO THE BELT FEEDS ON THE BASE BEING TOO CLOSE TO THE EDGE INSTEAD OF MORE TOWARDS THE MIDDLE OF THE CAR SEAT. TO KEEP THE BASE AND CAR SEAT IN PLACE, MORE DOWNWARD FORCE MUST BE APPLIED TO IT FROM A POINT CLOSER TO ITS CENTER. A POLICE OFFICER INSTALLED THE INFANT SEAT PER THE INSTRUCTIONS PROVIDED BY EVENFLO AND MADE SURE THE BASE WAS TIGHTENED DOWN. INSTALLED CORRECTLY, WE COULD STILL LIFT THE END OF THE BASE NEAREST THE FRONT CAB UP TO TOUCH THE BACK SEAT. IT ACTUALLY FLOPPED UP AND DOWN LOOSELY, EVEN WITH THE SEAT ATTACHED TO THE BASE. THIS WOULD POSE A SERIOUS INJURY RISK TO THE INFANT IN THE EVENT OF AN ACCIDENT- THE SEAT COULD FLY BACK TOWARDS THE REAR DASH AND CAUSE POSSIBLE NECK/BACK TRAUMA. IT COULD POSSIBLY EVEN LET GO COMPLETELY, ALLOWING SEAT AND CHILD TO BE THROWN AROUND THE INTERIOR OF THE CAR. NOT ONLY WOULD SUCH AN INCIDENT INJURE THE CHILD, BUT ALSO ANY OTHER PASSENGERS THAT A

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 355017
ODI Number 762338
Date Filed May 31, 2002
Failure Date May 25, 2002

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