Recalls in Automotive industry

Those who are intensively involved in auto industry facts are probably aware about so called “Vehicle Recall” phenomena. Although those who are not active in mentioned area, might have heard fast growing news regarding recall organized by large vehicle producing corporations. So what is recall and why it occurs?

Sometimes vehicle manufacturers find defects in one or several cars, which are produced at the factory. Whether any vehicle concern is liable in front of its customers it generally declares so called “Recall”. Recall means recalling the vehicles back for checking or some parts’ replacement. This process allows to prevent disrepairs of affected vehicles. These disrepairs might be caused by technical defects. Repairing is free of charge.

Together with increased number of electric appliances the quantity of vehicle recalls has also increased. For example the most recent recall was linked to EV producer “Tesla”. As per latest information which was confirmed on 24th of April, mentioned EV manufacturer declared worldwide recall of 53000 Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X.

Latest statistics of recalls show that, besides Tesla, the list of recalled automobiles includes various bigger and more familiar brands. For example: BMW recalled 3800 i3 vehicles, in February 2017. The reason: Possible flow in the additional tank.  Lamborghini is also here. It recalled 5900 EVs in February, 2017. The reason: ignition probability.

March, 2016 – Volkswagen and Porsche recalled approximately 800000 vehicles. The reason: Possible defect in pedals – Touareg and Porsche Cayenne

January 2016 – Volkswagen recalled 21 000 VW Caddy. Reason: probability of engine activation when opening bonnet.

November 2015, Tesla recalled all (!) sold Tesla Model S vehicles (90000). Reason: front passenger’s seat belt problem.

As you may have recognized reason of each recall includes word possible/probable, which means that there is a probability of a problem and the manufacturer tries to prevent its customers from such probability. Recalling vehicles in modern world has become a common practice.

As it is was mentioned, above list is not complete. Those people which are observing the event in automotive industry would have noticed that the list does not include the one of the most heard case which is linked to Takata safety airbags.

First mass wave of the vehicle recall related to the defects in Takata’s safety airbags occurred two years ago. It was spread almost on all vehicles as an epidemic. Due to this fact recall affected such producers as: BMW, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda, and Fiat Chrysler.  The latter one had to recall more than 4 mln. vehicles. FYI Takata is global provider of airbags – each fifth airbag belongs to Takata.

2017 March – Toyota declared second recall wave. Due to the fact that this brand is quite popular and the recall touched Armenia - existing Toyota and Lexus vehicles might be in the list of recalled cars. That is why we supposed that specifically this case would be interesting for Armenia’s population.  That is why we contacted a spokesperson for Toyota’s official representative office, who confirmed that the recall of specific vehicles really happened. Below we would like to bring your attention to their comments: 

We would like to clarify that declaration of recall in majority of cases does not completely imply existence of the problem – its purpose is to prevent the breach. The information flow regarding the recall is spread very fast in our company.  As soon as we recognize that the recalled car is in the list of our retailers’ sold vehicles and after receiving technical information from our central office, we are contacting each owner of the recalled vehicle ASAP. Afterwards follows communication with the official retailer, visit and further negotiation regarding the procedures within the recall program.

It is important to note that the customer is being contacted only in case the customer recently have visited Toyota’s official dealer for any type of works and left to dealer correct contact information. Although TOYOTA has made a huge step forward. Special program oriented on customers’ satisfaction allows them (those who have acquired the vehicles from official retailers) to check their vehicle recall status independently – whether their vehicle is in the list of recalled cars via unique VIN code. To do this customer has to visit company’s official web-site and visit page regarding “Special Service campaign” - www.toyota.am/vincheck. As for the customers whose vehicles were purchase either from used car market or from other countries – they may send an e-mail with vehicle VIN code on following mail box post: [email protected]   Also, we would recommend to Toyota and Lexus customers to check their vehicles periodically due to constant process of monitoring and improvement of already sold vehicles and as result possibility of new recalls arising.

We would like to clarify one more time that recall within this campaign means – free diagnosis and provision of corresponding repair.  In case if some vehicle’s VIN code is being detected in Global recall system (notwithstanding the area of purchase) the vehicle owner has to contact Toyota’s official dealers in his country: Toyota Yerevan LLC.