NHTSA Complaint #11704970 — 2025 FORD BRONCO SPORT

I'm concerned Ford has a defective seat belt buckle and can be a safety issue, causing passengers to forego using the seat belts since the belt tongue cannot be retained in the buckle. I brought my new 2025 Bronco Sport to the dealership i bought it from for failed rear seat safety belt buckles (drivers side and center) and was told it wasn't under warrantee because "there's something stuck in it". I was offered a $700 estimate to replace the buckles. Instead I went home to look at it myself. Drivers side was because the tongue of the belt insert had been bent over 45 degrees. A flathead screw driver freed the tongue, and the buckle was undamaged, and continues now to work great after. The center buckle wouldn't latch a belt tongue. I disassembled the plastic casing, and a white part fell out (in photo its on the seat next to the buckle) ... which turned out to be a broken internal part. The broken part is at the upper end of the spring and attachs to the brown slide at the bottom of the buckle (which activates the buckle switch) and has a pawl that engages the steel pin that extends across the buckle. It broke at the spring interface, and therefore lost function (no spring force to activate the internal latching mechanism).