A two-year-old girl from Ohio died on March 7 after a power-folding seat in a 2026 Hyundai Palisade collapsed and pinned her. On March 20, Hyundai filed a recall with NHTSA covering 61,093 Palisades in the United States and roughly 8,000 more in Canada. The company issued a stop-sale on affected inventory the same day.
This isn't a manufacturing defect that slipped through on a handful of units. It's a design flaw in the power seat system itself.
What went wrong
The second- and third-row power seats in affected Palisades don't detect contact with a person or object the way they're supposed to. During power-folding and one-touch walk-in operations, the anti-pinch protection (the system that should stop the seat from folding when something is in the way) doesn't work reliably. Consumer Reports found three complaints in NHTSA's database related to this defect before the recall was filed, including two that resulted in injuries.
Only the 2026 Palisade and Palisade Hybrid in Limited and Calligraphy trims are affected. Base SEL models use manually operated seats and aren't part of this recall.
How to check if your Palisade is in scope
Go to NHTSA.gov/recalls and enter your 17-digit VIN. As of March 19, all affected VINs are searchable. You can also run the same check through CarScout's recall lookup, which cross-references NHTSA data and shows every active recall tied to your vehicle in one place.
If you don't own a Palisade, it's still worth running your VIN. Keep reading.
What Hyundai is doing
Hyundai is rolling out an over-the-air software update through Bluelink by the end of March. This is an interim patch, not the permanent fix. It improves contact detection and adds safeguards to the power-folding system, but Hyundai says the full remedy (which may involve hardware changes) won't be communicated to owners until May 16.
If you don't have Bluelink, you won't get the update automatically. You'll need a dealer appointment, and dealers are going to get slammed on this one. If you need the repair soon, call now rather than waiting for the official letter. Hyundai's customer service line is 855-371-9460. Palisade owners can also request a loaner vehicle from their dealer while they wait for the fix.
The recall problem that doesn't make the news
The Palisade recall is getting coverage because a child died. Most recalls don't get that kind of attention. That's a big part of why they don't get fixed.
According to NHTSA's 2025 annual report, the average recall completion rate across all manufacturers is 45%. In 2025 alone, over 30 million vehicles were recalled in the US. Ford led with 153 separate recall campaigns covering 12.9 million vehicles, per NHTSA data. And the backlog compounds: recalls from 2024, 2023, and earlier years are still open on millions of cars that never went in for repair.
According to BizzyCar's analysis of NHTSA data, roughly 72.7 million vehicles on US roads right now have at least one open recall. That's about one in four registered vehicles in the country.
So why don't people get their cars fixed when the repair is free?
A few things compound. Recall notices go to the registered owner at the time the recall is issued. If the car changes hands, the new owner probably never gets the letter. There's no forwarding mechanism that follows the VIN from owner to owner. You could buy a used Camry tomorrow that was recalled in 2023, and nobody would tell you.
NHTSA data also shows that completion rates drop significantly as vehicles age. The owner of a 12-year-old sedan is far less likely to bring it in for a free repair than someone driving a 2-year-old SUV, even though the defect is just as dangerous.
What this means if you're buying used
Here's where the system really breaks down. There's no federal law requiring used car dealers to repair open recalls before selling a vehicle. In most states, a dealer can legally sell you a car with an active recall and never mention it.
Only a handful of states have explicit disclosure requirements. Pennsylvania requires written disclosure at the time of sale. California requires it only if the dealer has "actual knowledge" of the recall, which creates a convenient loophole: dealers who never check NHTSA's database can claim they didn't know. In Texas, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, and most other states, there's no used-car recall disclosure requirement at all.
The FTC issued a warning in March 2026 saying dealers can't advertise a vehicle as "safe" or "certified" while selling it with an unrepaired recall. But they stopped short of a binding rule. No requirement to check. No requirement to disclose. No requirement to repair before sale.
That's why running a VIN check before you buy isn't optional. It takes 30 seconds on NHTSA.gov. If the car has an open recall, the dealer is required to perform the repair at no cost, even if they weren't required to tell you about it. Recall repairs are free to the owner for at least 15 years after the recall is issued, per federal law.
One open recall on a used car isn't necessarily a deal-breaker. But you should know about it before you sign, not after.