Car Recalls You Should Not Ignore

Imagine parking your car in the driveway after a long day at work. In the morning, after a shower and some coffee, you step outside to go back to the office--and the car isn't there. It burned to a crisp overnight.

Crazy as that might sound, there was a recall issued last year on certain Ford Motor, Lincoln and Mercury models built between 1993 and 2003, in which a defective cruise control switch could spark a fire--even when the car was turned off and parked. The 12-million-vehicle recall was the largest one issued to date by any automaker.

Crazier still: Nearly 5 million of those vehicles haven't been fixed--they're still out on the road, putting people at risk. It is out of this concern that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a third consumer advisory in September urging owners to take these vehicles in for repair.

While ignoring a recall notice for cosmetic blemishes or malfunctioning radios is understandable, safety recalls--like the faulty Ford cruise control switch--should never be ignored. The NHTSA only gets involved with safety-related consumer complaints, a signal that the recall is worth heeding. In the end, however, it's up to the driver to bring the vehicle back when it's recalled; the best way to find if a recall is important is to check the NHTSA's Web site, nhtsa.gov.

Driver Insouciance

The problem with recalls is that they happen all the time. The NHTSA recalls cars for everything from malfunctioning window wiper systems to defective car jacks that collapse when a user raises the car to change a tire. As a result, car owners aren't nearly as responsive as they should be.

"Recall completion rates are about 30% for child safety seats, under 50% for tires," says Karen E. Aldana, NHTSA public affairs specialist. "That compares to more than 70% for vehicles [in general]," meaning that safety recalls have the lowest response rates. The aforementioned Ford recall was completed on only 7 million of the 12 million cars recalled, or 60%.

Aldana says that number is low and of serious concern. She says that the "NHTSA has received 60 complaints of alleged vehicle fires" resulting from the defect in the cruise control, though the organization is not aware of any injuries or deaths resulting from the alleged fires.

Safety defects don't always result in fires, but can result in equally startling outcomes. Audi recently announced that it is recalling 14,000 1996-2003 model-year A8 vehicles equipped with five-speed transmission. A faulty locking cable may slide out of position over time, allowing the vehicle to move out of the park position even if the ignition key is absent. If the gear shift were moved inadvertently while the car is parked in a hilly, urban environment, imagine the damage it could cause--but not if the car was returned and repaired.

Better Cars, Bigger Recalls

Those 14,000 Audis, however, make up a small portion of a year's total recalls. Last year, automakers recalled 14.5 million vehicles for repairs at dealerships, an NHTSA-estimated increase of about 30% over 2006 (11.2 million). Bad as that is, it's at least a drop from the industry-record-setting 2004, in which 30.8 million vehicles were recalled.

It's still a very high number, but the reason for it isn't that automakers are getting worse at building cars, it's that they're getting better. Unfortunately, the more technology is incorporated into cars, the more potential there is for things to go wrong.

For example, airbags were introduced in the 1970s and were mandated by Congress in the 1990s to help save lives in crashes, which they have been proved to do. But after airbags were installed, a flaw in the system could cause the airbags to deploy in non-crash situations in some models. This could injure unsuspecting occupants, or, worse, a malfunctioning airbag may not deploy when desperately needed in the event of a crash.

Even the creature comforts can cause problems. New technology that allows motorists to plug in iPods, power-open sunroofs or play DVDs for backseat passengers requires new wiring to connect all of these functions to the electrical system. A faulty wire powering one of these devices could keep the highlights from turning on or, worse, start a fire. So even the minor recalls can be cause for alarm.

"It is not good to have vehicles on the road with defective tires, parts or child seats," says Rae Tyson, an NHTSA spokesperson. "People don't fully understand the risk they take by ignoring safety recalls, and maybe they are not aware of the risk they take driving a vehicle with a defect that could put you and others in danger. All you are doing is playing a dangerous game of roulette."