BMW Recalling X5s Over Child Safety Concerns

2014 BMW X5 (Credit: © BMW)

If you own a BMW X5 and have children, listen up. The German automaker is recalling about 6,400 2014 X5s that were manufactured between December 12, 2013 and March 10, 2014 because of a problem with the child safety locks. Parents often use the locks to keep their children safely contained in the backseat like the wild animals they sometimes (often) mimic. The problem is that the locks might suddenly deactivate without any warning, meaning parents will think junior is fine in the backseat one moment, then realize he has hopped out of the car at a red light and is running full-force toward the local toy store.

Fortunately, according to BMW the problem is only with select X5 models, or more particularly with those that have the soft-closing doors option, which of course is incredibly handy with children, who love to slam doors and cost their parents money unnecessarily.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), riding high on its public lynching of General Motors, released a safety bulletin about the problem. The federal government agency concluded that the rear doors on the 2014 BMW X5 “may not have been manufactured to correct tolerances.” It also concluded that cat breath really does smell like cat food, among other obvious observations. Children could open the back doors even though the child safety locks are supposedly engaged, simply to pulling on the door handle a few times, rendering the child safety locks as worthless.

For obvious reasons, BMW is contacting owners of all X5 models that are affected by the recall. Necessary repairs will be conducted free of charge, meaning parents will then be able to rest easy knowing that their children will be contained while driving to the dentist or grandma’s.