Despite 750 injury reports, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) won’t be issuing a recall for the 7.4 million Stellantis vehicles possibly affected by a headrest issue.
Since 2019, Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep drivers have been noting a problem with inadvertent active headrest deployments. These models have a safety feature that moves the headrest forward to reduce impact in a crash. However, this is mistakenly triggered, causing the headrest to snap forward without warning due to a malfunctioning internal mechanism.
It’s believed this sudden headrest movement could injure drivers, and 11 crashes have been possibly linked to the issue — it couldn’t be fully proven, and the injuries were considered minor. There have been 8,770 total complaints so far. However, the NHTSA has ruled a recall isn’t needed and the solution is pretty lame.
What is going on with Crysler, Dodge, and Jeep headrests?
After a six-year investigation into the headrest issue impacting millions of vehicles, the NHTSA is not ordering a recall. Officials looked into the number of vehicles impacted, the incident frequency, and the severity of the injuries related to the headrest issue and concluded it was not a crash risk. Maybe a distraction at most.
There have been 750 injury reports since 2019, but the “complaint-to-injury” ratio was not high enough to take immediate action. Sixty-three drivers were contacted regarding their injuries, but only 12 responded. The NHTSA was having a tough time getting official medical documentation and it was proving difficult to prove that peoples’ pain was related to the headrest.
So… are you SOL if you have a headrest that could hit you in the back of the neck? Not totally. Stellantis has voluntarily implemented a 10-year extended warranty to repair the headrests. This means you can bring your vehicle to a dealership to get the headrest repaired or replaced for free if you have one of the affected ones.
The difference is, the NHTSA is no longer involved. This means that Stellantis is not required to notify vehicle owners about the headrest issue and urge them to get it fixed. It’s completely up to you to find out if your vehicle has one of these faulty headrests and reach out to a dealership to inquire about it. This likely means that many drivers will not be aware of the problem and not get in fixed, which has caused a bit of backlash.
Which Stellantis vehicles have a faulty headrest?
Wondering if you have one of the impacted vehicles? Here are all of the vehicles mentioned in the investigation:
- Chrysler 200 (2011-2014)
- Chrysler Town & Country (2011-2016)
- Dodge Avenger (2011-2014)
- Dodge Caliber (2010-2012)
- Dodge Durango (2011-2020)
- Dodge Grand Caravan (2010-2019)
- Dodge Journey (2010-2019)
- Dodge Nitro (2010)
- Jeep Compass (2010-2017)
- Jeep Grand Cherokee (2011-2019)
- Jeep Liberty (2010-2012)
- Jeep Patriot (2010-2017)
- Ram C/V Tradesman (2014)
Out of all of these mentioned vehicles, the most heavily impacted appears to be Jeep Grand Cherokee models from 2012 to 2015, with 710,890 models in that category. Jeep Grand Cherokees from this timeframe have 2,839 incidents, including 263 alleged injuries. This includes four reports of a concussion.
Only three months into 2026, and we’re seeing plenty of recalls across the entire auto industry. Ford is an obvious source of recalls, but Subaru has also made headlines the past few days despite being one of the most reliable brands of the year.
