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My girlfriend has a 1998 Plymouth Neon. You know how in our cars, when you yank on the seatbelt really quickly, it locks? Well, when I do it in her car, it doesn't lock. I went to the local Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep retailer, and they said that the parts are covered by Chrysler, however the labour is not, but this isn't really the point of this post.
Her step-father said that it is normal, because they are only supposed to lock-up when you hit the brakes hard. Now, hold on a second, this doesn't seem right because in the EL I can be driving down the road and they'll just lock up for a second on their own, or, like I said, when I yank on them hard.
He mentioned something about them being different mechanisms. He said that the reason the Neon's belts don't lock-up when you yank on them at a stand-still is because they are a "pendulum" mechanism, and the type that our car has is a "centrifugal" mechanism, or maybe it was the other way around, I don't know. ANYWAY, I was just wondering if what he said is true, or they just don't want to spend the money to get them fixed? (Which IMO is stupid because you can't put a price on your safety).
Sorry for the long read, but a Neon is un-safe enough on its own when it IS working properly, let alone when the seatbelts may not be working properly. Thanks guys

 
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Go out and try it? thats all i can say.. ive also heard that some seatbelts will lock up when the car reaches a certain degree mark or something i dunno.

 
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Thanks.

 
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yeah the stepfather is right, I hate neons by the way...sorry had to get that out of our system. That is the way most chrysler vehicles are.