Chrysler Recalls 48,777 Dodge Hornets and Alfa Romeo Tonales Over Twisting Seat Belts

Chrysler is recalling 48,777 Dodge Hornet and Alfa Romeo Tonale SUVs after finding that the rear outboard seat belts can twist inside the retractor and stop pulling tight, a defect the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says raises the risk of injury in a crash. Owners get a notification letter starting September 24, and the fix is free at any Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep or Ram dealer.

What Is Actually Wrong With the Seat Belts

The recall covers certain 2023 through 2025 Dodge Hornet models and 2023 through 2026 Alfa Romeo Tonale models, both built on the same Stellantis small-SUV platform in Italy. NHTSA’s recall report describes rear outboard seat belt retractors that can develop a twist in the webbing, preventing the belt from retracting fully after use. A seat belt that will not retract properly can sit loose across an occupant’s body, so it will not tighten down the way it is designed to the moment a crash happens.

Stellantis traced the problem to a supplier quality issue at the point of assembly, where the webbing occasionally folds or crimps as it winds onto the retractor spool. Once that twist sets in, normal use will not shake it loose. The company first learned of the defect in Europe in April 2026, when several rear seat belt retractors on Tonale models built for that market malfunctioned the same way. An internal investigation followed, turning up 484 warranty claims tied to weak or unresponsive retractors before Stellantis notified NHTSA and opened the U.S. campaign.

NHTSA’s own estimate puts the defect rate at roughly 1.6 percent of the recalled population, meaning most Hornet and Tonale owners will find nothing wrong when a technician checks their car. Stellantis and NHTSA have not linked the defect to any confirmed crashes or injuries in the United States, a different starting point than several of the other restraint-system recalls Stellantis has issued this year.

How a Twisted Retractor Actually Fails

Seat belt retractors work on a spring-loaded spool that reels the webbing in and out, then locks under sudden deceleration so the belt holds an occupant against the seat instead of letting them pitch forward. That locking mechanism depends on the webbing sitting flat against the spool. A fold or twist changes how the belt winds, and in the affected Hornet and Tonale units, Stellantis found the twist can build up gradually over repeated buckling cycles rather than showing up the first time someone gets in the back seat.

The practical result is a belt that looks and feels normal in everyday use but does not retract snugly against the body, leaving extra slack that a locking retractor cannot take up fast enough in a crash. The defect develops with use rather than existing from day one, so a car that passed a dealer’s pre-delivery inspection can still develop the problem months or years later. That is part of why Stellantis is treating this as a full population recall rather than limiting it to a narrower production window.

The Fix and the Timeline

Dealers will inspect the rear outboard seat belt retractors and replace any that show the twisting defect, at no cost to the owner. Stellantis has told NHTSA it expects the repair to take under an hour once parts are available at the dealership. Owners do not need to do anything before their letter arrives, and the car remains safe to drive in the meantime unless a rear passenger notices the belt will not pull back into place, in which case the dealer can be contacted directly to schedule an earlier inspection.

Notification letters go into the mail starting September 24, 2026. Owners who want to check their vehicle sooner do not have to wait for the letter. Every recall is searchable by 17-digit Vehicle Identification Number at NHTSA.gov/recalls, and the same VIN lookup works through Chrysler’s own recall site. Anyone unsure whether their Hornet or Tonale is included can also call Chrysler customer service directly at 800-853-1403 and reference recall number 84D, the internal campaign code Stellantis assigned to this defect.

The Hornet and Tonale share so much engineering that both brands are covered under the same recall paperwork, sold through separate Dodge and Alfa Romeo dealer networks. Owners of either model should expect the same process: a mailed letter, a VIN-based appointment, and a free retractor swap.

Part of a Larger Pattern at Stellantis

This is not an isolated seat belt problem inside the company. Weeks earlier, Chrysler opened a far larger campaign covering 1,271,294 Ram 1500 pickups from the 2019 through 2026 model years, after finding that second-row seat belt buckle anchors were not properly secured to the truck’s body structure when the trucks were built. That recall, unrelated in its root cause but similar in its consequence, also leaves an occupant restraint system unable to do its job in a crash. Notification letters for the Ram recall began going out August 18, and VINs became searchable on NHTSA’s site August 6.

Two large seat belt recalls from the same manufacturer within roughly six weeks of each other is unusual, and it reflects a broader trend NHTSA has flagged repeatedly through 2026: automakers have opened more individual recall campaigns industry-wide this year than in any of the past five years, with more than 23 million vehicles pulled back for repair from January through August alone. Restraint-system defects, once a rare category of recall, have become one of the more common triggers behind that surge, alongside backup camera software failures and rearview display glitches that have hit Stellantis, Honda and Ford models throughout the summer.

For Hornet and Tonale owners specifically, the practical takeaway is simple. This defect affects a small share of the recalled population, no confirmed U.S. injury has been tied to it, and the fix is quick once scheduled. The larger issue is that seat belt retractors, airbags and backup cameras now depend on suppliers and software in ways they did not a decade ago, and a single manufacturing variance at one plant can ripple into a recall covering tens of thousands of vehicles built an ocean away from where the parts were assembled.

What Every Owner Should Do Now

Check whether a 2023-2025 Dodge Hornet or 2023-2026 Alfa Romeo Tonale is affected by entering the VIN at NHTSA.gov/recalls. Do not wait for the mailed letter if a rear passenger has already noticed a seat belt that will not retract. Call Chrysler customer service at 800-853-1403 and reference recall 84D to schedule a dealer visit directly. The repair is free regardless of whether the vehicle is still under its original warranty, and dealers cannot charge a diagnostic fee to confirm whether a specific car has the defect.

Owners who bought a Hornet or Tonale used should also confirm the VIN independently rather than trusting a previous owner’s word that “all the recalls are done.” NHTSA’s lookup tool reflects open campaigns in real time and is the only reliable way to confirm a used vehicle has had every outstanding recall addressed. That check takes under a minute and costs nothing, one of the simplest pieces of due diligence available to any used car buyer, not just those shopping for a Hornet or Tonale.

Parents who carry children in the back seat of an affected vehicle have the strongest reason to move quickly. A twisted retractor is most likely to matter for exactly the passengers who rely on the rear seat belts every trip, and a quick VIN check now removes any doubt before the mailed notice even arrives.

Owners can also ask a dealer to check the recall status of every open campaign on their VIN in one visit, not just this seat belt fix. Stellantis vehicles built in the past three years have carried an unusually high number of separate recall campaigns, and a single service appointment that addresses all of them at once saves a return trip later.

Sources:

• Fox Business: Seat belt recall covers nearly 50,000 Dodge Hornet and Tonale vehicles
• NHTSA Recalls Database
• Detroit News: 2026 recall volume context
• Fox Business: Chrysler recalls 1.27M Ram pickups over seat belt issue