Cadillac Vistiq Recall — General Motors, LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2026-2027 Cadi

Press the one-touch fold button in the cargo area of a Cadillac Vistiq and the third-row seatback swings forward under its own power. It is a convenience feature, the kind of thing that sells a three-row SUV to a family that loads and unloads the way-back twice a day. On the SUVs covered by this recall, that seatback has a flaw. When it folds into something, it stops. It does not swing back. A small child caught behind it can be held in place by a seat that will not release on its own.

General Motors is recalling 14,540 Cadillac Vistiq electric SUVs, every example built for the 2026 and 2027 model years, under NHTSA campaign 26V394000. The defect is narrow and specific: when the power-fold feature is activated, the third-row seatback may fail to reverse after it encounters a person.

GM did not catch this on its own test bench first. It went looking after a two-year-old was killed by a power-folding seat in another automaker's SUV, ran the Vistiq through the same scenario, and found its seat had a version of the same problem.

The Issue

The Vistiq's third-row seats fold flat at the press of a button, either from a control in the cargo area or from a switch on the pillar next to the seat. A single press starts the motor and the seatback lays itself down. That is the whole appeal: one hand, one button, no climbing into the third row to wrestle a latch.

A seat that folds under power needs a way to know when it has hit something. GM's own evaluation found the Vistiq's system fell short. Engineers placed a box weighing 33 to 40 pounds on the seat and ran the fold cycle. The seatback continued folding, then stopped in a position that trapped the box so it could not be removed without manually reversing the seat. Swap that box for a toddler who has climbed into the cargo well, and the failure mode is obvious.

Power windows have been required to sense an obstruction and reverse since federal rulemaking closed that gap years ago. Power-folding seatbacks carry no equivalent federal standard. There is no mandated pinch-force limit and no required auto-reverse test that an automaker has to pass before it puts a one-touch fold button in a family SUV. Each manufacturer sets its own threshold, and the industry is learning where those thresholds fall short one recall at a time.

Affected Models

Vehicle	Model Years	Units
Cadillac Vistiq	2026	13,629
Cadillac Vistiq	2027	911
Total	2026-2027	14,540

The recall covers the entire production run of the Vistiq to date. The Vistiq is a new nameplate, a three-row electric SUV that slots above the two-row Lyriq in Cadillac's lineup, so there is no earlier generation to exclude. If you own a Vistiq, it is in scope until you confirm otherwise through the VIN lookup.

Chronology and Investigation

The story starts with a different SUV. On March 7, 2026, two-year-old Lucia Ayala died in a parked Hyundai Palisade in Akron, Ohio, pinned between the third-row seatback and the seat when the power-folding mechanism closed on her. The medical examiner recorded the cause of death as a child compressed by a power-folding seat in a parked SUV. Hyundai issued a stop-sale and a recall on the 2026 Palisade later that month.

That recall is what sent a GM engineer to the Vistiq. Citing a recall by a different manufacturer as the reason for the test, the engineer ran the Vistiq's third-row seat through an obstruction scenario and reported the result through GM's internal Speak Up For Safety program. GM then pulled its field data and found the problem was not hypothetical.

GM's Safety Field Action Decision Authority approved the recall on June 11, 2026. NHTSA campaign 26V394000 was filed June 18, 2026, and VINs became searchable on NHTSA.gov the same day.

Reported Incidents

GM identified six incidents or complaints potentially tied to the third-row seat, received between May 2025 and June 2026. None resulted in an injury. Those reports predate the Palisade recall, which means the field signal was already present in GM's data before the Hyundai case gave the company a reason to go read it closely.

No injuries and no deaths have been linked to the Vistiq seat. The recall is preventive. That distinction matters for how you weigh the risk, but it does not make the hazard theoretical, because the failure GM reproduced on its own test is the same one that killed a child in the Palisade.

What Owners Should Do

The remedy comes in two stages. In the near term, dealers will disable the third-row power-folding feature so the seat cannot fold under power at all. That removes the hazard while GM sources the fix. Once parts are available, dealers will replace the seat module with a version that reverses when it meets an obstruction. Both steps are free.

Owner notification letters are expected to mail August 3, 2026, which is also the earliest window GM has given for replacement parts. VINs are already searchable at NHTSA.gov, so you do not have to wait for the letter to confirm your SUV is included. Owners can contact Cadillac customer service at 1-800-333-4223 and reference GM recall number N262555780.

Until the seat is disabled or replaced, the safest habit is to stop using the one-touch fold when anyone is in or near the third row. Fold the seats when the way-back is empty and you can see it, and keep small children clear of the cargo area while the seat is in motion. The recall does not restrict driving the vehicle in any other respect.

How Long Will the Recall Repair Take?

The interim step is quick. Disabling the power-fold function is a software or wiring change a dealer can do in a single visit, likely under an hour. The full remedy is the longer wait. Replacing the seat module is a bolt-in job on its own, but it depends on GM producing and shipping the corrected part, and the company has pointed to the week of August 3 as the earliest that parts will flow.

Owners who want the hazard gone before the replacement part exists should ask their dealer to perform the interim disable now rather than waiting for the letter. A seat that cannot fold under power cannot trap anyone.

Bottom Line

This is a real risk with a clean interim fix. The population is small, only 14,540 vehicles, and no one has been hurt in a Vistiq. The reason to act anyway is that the failure is not a maybe. GM reproduced it in a controlled test, and the same defect in another SUV was fatal to a toddler four months ago.

The larger story is regulatory. Cadillac and Hyundai did not fail a government test. They failed a test that does not exist yet, because federal rules never caught up to the one-touch power-folding seat. Expect more of these recalls across the industry as automakers discover, model by model, where their own thresholds fall short. Until a standard exists, the burden sits with owners to treat a convenience feature as something that needs supervision around small children.

Find your Cadillac Vistiq recall information: https://www.cadillac.com/recalls

GM launched its Vistiq investigation after Hyundai's March 2026 recall of the 2026 Palisade, which followed the death of a two-year-old pinned by a power-folding third-row seat. GM had six Vistiq field reports on file (May 2025 to June 2026) before the Palisade case prompted the test that confirmed the defect.

Power windows have been federally required to auto-reverse on obstruction for years (FMVSS 118). No equivalent standard governs power-folding seatbacks, so automakers set their own thresholds. The Vistiq and Palisade recalls are early examples of an industry-wide gap surfacing recall by recall.