Automotive News reports on the difficulty experienced by automakers in contacting car owners to notify them of recalled vehicles and getting owners to bring in recalled vehicles to be fixed. AN says the process is “disjointed at best,” with vast differences in how automakers seeking out affected customers. AN identifies Honda as a brand that “has set itself apart in trying unique approaches to overcome institutional, political, technological, financial and social barriers to closing outstanding recalls” by “exhausting multiple avenues to locate owners” of recalled vehicle. The piece includes statistics comparing the rate at which recalled vehicles in developed countries are repaired, with Germany repairing 100 percent of recalled vehicles, the UK repairing 92 percent, Japan repairing 80 percent, and the US repairing “only about 70 percent.” AN says that from the government side, “NHTSA ensures that automakers notify owners in a timely manner and confirms that repairs will fix the problem, but it does not directly track, house or distribute recall data.”
From the news release of the American Association for Justice.
