2004 KIA SPECTRA — Complaint #742259
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SEAT BELTS:INTEGRATED CHILD SEAT filed November 2, 2009
NHTSA complaint #742259 (ODI reference 10290721) concerns a 2004 KIA SPECTRA and was filed on November 2, 2009. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 1, 2008. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as seat belts:integrated child seat, 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 KIA SPECTRA cohort independently describe similar seat belts:integrated child seat 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 2004 KIA SPECTRA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
EVENFLO TRIUMPH ADVANCE' LX CONVERTIBLE FAILS TO PERFORM BASIC CARSEAT FUNCTIONS. ACTUAL CARSEAT DAMAGES ITSELF VIA RAZOR SHARP PLASTIC OPENINGS WHERE THE LATCH SYSTEM STRAP OR VEHICLE RESTRAINT STRAP GOES THROUGH THE SEAT. WE HAVE BEEN PHYSICALLY CUT ON THIS PLASTIC ALONG WITH THE LATCH STRAP BEING FRAYED AND CUT BEYOND SAFE USE. WE HAVE DISCONTINUED USING THE LATCH SYSTEM BUT ARE CONCERNED THAT THE VEHICLE'S SAFETY RESTRAINT STRAP WILL ALSO BE FRAYED AND BECOME UNSAFE ALONG WITH PERMANENT DAMAGE TO OUR VEHICLE. THIS PLASTIC ISSUES HAS RESULTED IN GROSS SAFETY ISSUES ON A CONSTANT BASIS. CHILD CAN EASILY GET OUT OF THE CARSEAT REGARDLESS OF STRAP TENSION EVERY SINGLE USE. THE CHEST CLIP SLIPS UP AND DOWN TOO EASILY AND CHILD CAN SIMPLY, WITH 1 FINGER, SLIDE THE CHEST CLIP THE TO 5 POINT HARNESS, WIGGLE ARMS AND LEGS OUT AND GET INTO A STANDING POSITION WITHOUT MUCH DIFFICULTY. NO ACTION HAS BEEN TAKEN BY THE MANUFACTURER. *TR
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 742259 |
| ODI Number | 10290721 |
| Date Filed | November 2, 2009 |
| Failure Date | June 1, 2008 |
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.