Mercedes-Benz Cla 250+ (Ev), Mercedes-Benz Cla 350 4matic (Ev), model year 2026. Filed by Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC and reported to NHTSA on 1 May 2026. 15 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC (MBUSA) is recalling certain 2026 CLA 350 4MATIC (EV) and CLA 250+ (EV) vehicles. The front passenger seat belt retractor may have been manufactured with a defect that prevents the deactivation of the child seat safety function (Automatic Locking Retractor). As a result, the seat belt may remain …
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 26V278 cover?
- Mercedes-Benz Cla 250+ (Ev), Mercedes-Benz Cla 350 4Matic (Ev), model year 2026.
- What is wrong with them?
- Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC (MBUSA) is recalling certain 2026 CLA 350 4MATIC (EV) and CLA 250+ (EV) vehicles. The front passenger seat belt retractor may have been manufactured with a defect that prevents the deactivation of the child seat safety function (Automatic Locking Retractor).
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- A passenger who is unable to fasten their seat belt is not properly restrained, increasing their risk of injury in a crash.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Dealers will replace the front passenger seat belt, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed July 24, 2026. Owners may contact MBUSA customer service at 1-800-367-6372. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall will be searchable on NHTSA.gov beginning May 8, 2026.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “A passenger who is unable to fasten their seat belt is not properly restrained, increasing their risk of injury in a crash.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 26V278 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC |
| System at fault | Seat Belts:Front:Retractor |
| Reported to NHTSA | 1 May 2026 |
| Model years | 2026-2026 |
| Vehicles named | MERCEDES-BENZ CLA 250+ (EV), MERCEDES-BENZ CLA 350 4MATIC (EV) |
What the notice says today
The defect
Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC (MBUSA) is recalling certain 2026 CLA 350 4MATIC (EV) and CLA 250+ (EV) vehicles. The front passenger seat belt retractor may have been manufactured with a defect that prevents the deactivation of the child seat safety function (Automatic Locking Retractor). As a result, the seat belt may remain in a locked position and cannot be extended.
The consequence
A passenger who is unable to fasten their seat belt is not properly restrained, increasing their risk of injury in a crash.
The remedy
Dealers will replace the front passenger seat belt, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed July 24, 2026. Owners may contact MBUSA customer service at 1-800-367-6372. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall will be searchable on NHTSA.gov beginning May 8, 2026.
What it said before
Nothing has changed while we have been watching. We last read the wording of this campaign on 17 September 2026, and it matched the copy we already held.
That copy hashes to 7eeb14bcd8fb8d8a9d77e7c846dd0a70…, so if it is ever edited the change is provable rather than a matter of memory.
This is one of 451 notices in the record whose component field names seat belts. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 48 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 26V278, wording as read on 17 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/26v278/
The copy quoted above hashes to 7eeb14bcd8fb8d8a9d77e7c846dd0a70…. If the notice is reworded later, that fingerprint will not match, which is how a reader checks that the quotation was of the version we say it was.
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 26V278 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
06df225a - Consequence
239ff6ba - Remedy
48296fcb
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 26V278 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Mercedes-Benz Cla 250, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
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Owners of these cars
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