Stellantis has recalled 48,777 Dodge Hornet and Alfa Romeo Tonale SUVs after finding that the rear outboard seat belts can twist inside their retractors and stop restraining passengers properly, according to the recall Stellantis subsidiary FCA filed with federal regulators. The defect covers certain 2023-2025 Dodge Hornets and 2023-2026 Alfa Romeo Tonales, and the recall documentation warns that a twisted belt may not trigger a dashboard warning light or any other alert a driver would notice before a crash.
That absence of a warning is what separates this recall from most seat-belt defects, which typically surface through an indicator light or an audible chime. Here, a belt can fail its restraint function silently, leaving occupants to discover the problem only if they happen to notice the webbing sitting at an odd angle across a shoulder or lap, or not at all, until the belt is actually needed in a crash.
A twisted retractor that never trips a warning light
FCA traced the defect to the rear outboard seat belt retractors, which can twist during normal use in a way that keeps the belt from freely extending and retracting as designed. In its filing, the automaker wrote that seat belts that do not freely retract or maintain tension do not provide the designed occupant restraint function, language that spells out the practical risk: a belt under the wrong tension, or unable to move at all, may not hold an occupant in place the way a functioning restraint would during certain kinds of crashes.
No warning system on either vehicle is designed to catch that specific failure, which is part of why Stellantis is relying on a full recall rather than a software update or a dashboard notice to reach owners.
Modern seat belt systems typically pair a mechanical retractor with an electronic reminder that senses whether a buckle is latched, not whether the webbing itself is under proper tension or twisted inside the spool, so the reminder light on either vehicle has nothing to detect even after a retractor has already failed. That gap between what a warning system monitors and what can actually go wrong inside a retractor is common across the industry, not unique to Stellantis, but it is exactly the gap this defect falls into.
Nearly 49,000 vehicles, split across two brands
The recall spans 48,777 vehicles in total, 40,386 Dodge Hornets and 8,391 Alfa Romeo Tonales, reflecting how the two SUVs share a platform and much of their underlying hardware despite being sold under separate brands and, in the Tonale’s case, at a distinctly higher price point. Dodge Hornet model years 2023 through 2025 are affected, alongside Alfa Romeo Tonale model years 2023 through 2026, meaning the newest Tonales on dealer lots when the recall was filed are included.
Catching the Tonale’s newest model year in the same action as three-year-old Hornets suggests the retractor design itself, rather than a running change made partway through production, is the root of the problem. Both SUVs are built on a shared small-crossover platform and manufactured alongside each other at a Stellantis plant in Italy before the Hornet is shipped to North America and the Tonale is sold across Alfa Romeo’s home and export markets, which explains why a component-level defect surfaced in both nameplates at once rather than in just one brand.
484 warranty claims before the fix
FCA has logged 484 warranty claims tied to twisted rear seat belt retractors, the volume of customer complaints that ultimately triggered the broader recall. Despite that number, the company reports no confirmed injuries or accidents connected to the defect, a distinction that separates this action from safety recalls opened only after a crash pattern emerges. Acting on warranty data before a crash record accumulates is generally the earlier, safer point in a defect’s life cycle for a manufacturer to intervene.
Whether 484 claims fully captures how often the retractors actually twist is an open question, since a belt that fails silently and without a warning light is also one many owners might never think to report. A seat belt that cannot maintain tension matters most in the exact moments a restraint system is built for — a sudden stop or a side impact — when webbing sitting loose or twisted across the body can let an occupant move farther than a properly tensioned belt would allow.
Dealers begin swapping retractors for free
The remedy itself is straightforward: dealers will replace the affected rear seat belt retractors with redesigned units at no cost to owners. Owners of the affected Hornets and Tonales can expect notification by mail once Stellantis finalizes its outreach schedule, standard practice for a recall of this scale.
Until that replacement happens, the defect leaves owners with a belt that looks and feels normal in daily use, which is part of why FCA built the recall around inspection and replacement rather than a warning that depends on a driver noticing something wrong first. Owners can typically confirm whether a specific vehicle identification number falls inside an open recall through NHTSA’s public recall lookup tool, a standard step for any of the tens of thousands of Hornet and Tonale owners waiting to hear whether their vehicle is part of the affected population.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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