What is a recall?

Every now and again you may hear about recalls in a news bulletin or you may receive communication from your vehicle manufacturer. So what is a recall, why does it happen and what does it mean for the vehicle owner?

Sometimes after a vehicle is manufactured faults may occur on components, parts or chassis of a vehicle.

These can be minor or in some cases it may be a major fault with potentially dangerous consequences. This would require the manufacturer to issue a safety recall.

This is similar to recalls that you may see for an unsafe toy or contaminated food. Unfortunately, though for car owners you won’t receive a refund or a replacement vehicle.

When it comes to vehicle recalls the manufacturer will attempt to contact all the original vehicle owners to notify them of the issue and to arrange for you to take your vehicle to a dealer to be repaired or modified ensuring that part of the vehicle is deemed safe.

As you can imagine vehicle owners will not always be aware of recalls. If you have purchased a second hand vehicle, had a change of address or changed contact details you could miss out on being notified.

Recalls can occur on any vehicle of any age. Faults may not become apparent until later in a vehicles life.

When purchasing a second hand vehicle you might want to also check if there were any recalls on this vehicle and identify if they have been carried out before you make a used car purchase, so you are in the know.

How can you check? There are recall websites where you can check for recalls on your vehicle such as the Product Safety Australia site or you can contact the vehicle manufacturer to check your VIN number for recalls or a good idea is to ask your mechanic to check for recalls every time your car is in getting a service.

If there is a recall on your vehicle they can identify if the recall has been fixed as there is a record kept to identify if faults have been fixed or not. If there is a recall on your vehicle that hasn’t been fixed you will be given advice on what to do.

You are probably thinking so how much is this potentially going to cost me? Don’t worry if there is a recall issued on a vehicle the owners of the vehicle do not pay a cent, so you are not out of pocket.

It is important to find out about recalls on your car. Some examples of issues that may arise are; cars lurching forward when vehicle is in park and handbrake is on, speedometer gauge displaying you are travelling slower than what you are actually going, faulty air bags that do not deploy in an accident or vehicle accelerates when using cruise control.

These could potentially put you, your family, friends and other people around you at risk.

So it’s a good idea to get informed and do your bit to check and see if there are any recalls. Not only for yourself but also for other people’s safety on the road.

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