Arnold Schwarzenneger may have had to go through a bit of an ordeal to recall his true identity but thanks to our easy-to-follow guide, you won’t have to dodge bullets and avoid aliens to get the low down on automotive recalls.
The rather dryly worded Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency code of practice states that a vehicle only needs to be recalled if one of its features may affect its safe operation without prior warning to the driver and may pose a significant risk to the occupants.
In layman’s terms a recall is simply a request by a car manufacturer to rectify a specific issue with one or more of their existing models. Depending on the severity of the recall, the media may make a big deal about the issues surrounding it.
The best thing to do if you think your vehicle is one of the ones affected is to contact the manufacturer or better yet, check online beforehand, click on to see how…
Check if your car has been recalled
If your current vehicle was built after 1992, which is most likely the case seeing as the average age of vehicles in the UK is around the 8-year mark, then you can follow this handy link and check if any recalls have been issued on it:
A recall may be issued if a large number of customers experience the same problem with their car or the manufacturer’s engineers identify a potential issue that could compromise driver or passenger safety.
What types of recalls are there?
Common recalls include minor changes to mechanical components or simple software updates to the car’s ECU (electronic control unit).
More serious recalls may address potential issues with the steering system, brakes or the engine itself.
There should never be a charge for a recall while it is in effect.
What if the recall procedure is no longer available?
If you did not get your car sorted out during the recall period window the manufacturer may still offer the update at a reduced rate but they are under no obligation to do so and you may have to foot the bill yourself.
What happens if you are not the original owner?
A recall applies to a vehicle and not the owner so this should not preclude you from having the remedial work carried out.
Check what recalls were issued on older vehicles if you are buying one second hand and ask for evidence that the work was done.
If you are going to make a mistake, go big.
While some recalls are harmless enough there have been a few massive ones that have shocked the industry, the most obvious is of course the recent VW emissions scandal but there are some other big booboos out there that deserve a mention too.
Hot and bothered
Ferrari and Porsche both pride themselves in their ability to build exotic machinery that can shrug off abusive track driving without a sweat.
Except of course if you happened to be driving one of the first Ferrari 458 or Porsche 991 GT3 models.
Both had the unfortunate tendency to spontaneously combust under pressure, the Ferrari due to some sub-par wheel housing glue and the Porsche from an unspecified engine component.
So reliable it just keeps going and going…
Toyota has long been considered one of the most reliable motor manufacturers around, that is unless you happened to be one of the over 1 million UK owners who had to send their vehicles in to have a sticky accelerator pedal fixed.
Unidentified object in air-bagging area
One of the most common recalls in recent years has been for potentially faulty airbags, Honda and Toyota have both been affected with over half a million vehicles combined having been recalled in recent years.
The Takata airbag scandal (where it was found that millions of faulty airbags had been manufactured by a Japanese company) also extended to Mazda, Chevrolet, Nissan and BMW.
So, what if my car is recall free?
If your particular model has no official recall on file it may not always mean that you are driving a faultless vehicle, some manufacturers are just less inclined to follow up on potential issues.
Checking with car clubs and chatting with your service advisor may highlight potential problems.
On a less pessimistic note, you may just be lucky enough to have picked a recall-free car.