After a two-year-old’s death and subsequent stop-sale and recall, higher-end Hyundai Palisade models with power-folding seats are once again available.
In March, Hyundai released a statement and issued a stop-sale concerning certain versions of the latest Palisade after a two-year-old girl was fatally injured by the car’s power-folding seats. The automaker subsequently issued a recall to address the issue, and after finalizing a fix related to both second- and third-row seats, the whole Palisade lineup is once again on sale (per Reuters).
The recall addresses a few key concerns about how the power-folding seats on Palisade Limited and Calligraphy trims operate. New software with updated occupant and object detection is a key part of the remedy. The single-touch fold function, which shipped with the upper-trim Palisades, is now disabled: Users will have to press and hold the seat-folding button to actually fold down the rear seats. The tailgate also needs to be open to use the car’s seat-stow function, while owners can no longer do it from the infotainment screen.
Hyundai rolled out the fix through an over-the-air software update, and considers the changes in that update the final fix for the issue. Vehicles with an active Bluelink subscription can get the latest update installed to their car without needing to go into the dealer. However, customers without Bluelink can go into the dealer to have the update done, free of charge. Dealers will also need to update vehicles in their inventory before selling them to the general public, but affected Palisades will be available for sale once that’s done.
In total, this recall campaign (Hyundai recall 296, NHTSA recall 26V-160) affects 61,093 Hyundai Palisade SUVs. Again, to be clear, this only affects trims with power-folding seats, so customers who do not own a Palisade Limited or Calligraphy aren’t impacted by this recall.
