Smart Buying Essentials

Vehicle Recalls

Despite extensive pre-production testing and dramatically improved quality of new cars and trucks these days, recalls are still very much a fact of life for motorists. Perhaps it's because vehicles have also become so much more complex, with more things to go wrong. In any case, each time a recall is announced, most owners probably raise an eyebrow and wonder what kind of a lemon they've gotten themselves into now. After all, the stuff of some recalls-engine fires, broken steering system components, wheels that fall off, air bags that explode for no reason-can be pretty scary.
The truth is, they have little reason to worry. Like airline crashes or killer-bee attacks, recalls can create quite a sensation, especially when they involve best-selling vehicles. But the chances of anything unusual happening to your particular car or truck if it's recalled are pretty remote. A recall isn't a sure sign that your car will become a long term problem. Most vehicles will undergo two or three recalls during their life cycle. Indeed, recalls happen in even the best automotive neighborhoods, with manufacturers from Acura to Volvo announcing manufacturer recalls and even subject to government mandated recalls. Even the perceived icon of quality, Toyota, has sustained two large recalls on 16 models in the last couple of years (affecting some 1.27 million vehicles globally, including their very popular Prius hybrid.