3 Series Sedan

Make
BMW
Segment
Sedan

When a car company owns more than one brand, there are massive benefits. Costs, patents, technology, and general know-how get shared across all the brands, making for better products from each manufacturer. There really aren't many downsides, but those that exist do suck. When there's a recall for a specific component, it can affect numerous brands and models. BMW is experiencing this at the moment, with over 21,000 vehicles across several brands being recalled due to faulty passenger seatbelt retractors that could hinder the installation of a child car seat. This reminds us of a 22,000-vehicle recall that Cadillac experienced a few years back, but in that case, only one model was affected.

The BMW recall affects 2021 models alone, and on the majority of these vehicles, the affected safety belt is the front passenger unit, in which it is not recommended to fit a child seat anyway. No harm, no foul, right? Well, you'd still want your seatbelt to work as intended, and the bad news is that BMW's own vehicles seem to be affected in the rear. The 2 Series convertible and M2 Competition coupe, along with all versions of the 3 Series (M3 included) and the regular 5 Series are affected by faulty automatic locking retractors in the rear seats. As a result, safely fitting a child seat in these cars is difficult, if not impossible.

BMW does provide some peace of mind by saying that the emergency locking retractors that activate during a crash should still work properly, but a child seat would still not be ideally secured. Fortunately, BMW already has a fix and it only takes an hour to resolve. In the meantime, the lower LATCH anchors are still safe to use.

If you're wondering if your car is affected, these are the models listed under the recall: BMW 2 Series coupes and convertibles, 3 Series and M3 sedans, 4 Series and M4 coupes, 5 Series sedans, X1 and X2 SUVs, and Z4 convertibles. From Mini, all Cooper hatchbacks and convertibles, Clubman hatchbacks, and Countryman SUVs are affected. Rolls-Royce Cullinan SUVs and Ghost and Phantom sedans are affected too, along with Toyota Supra coupes.