Gadgetory

it's 2001 and Ford and Firestone have a problem those Firestone tires on a bunch of Ford SUVs are coming apart in speed one hundred people are already dead and a massive recall almost 20 million tires is mounted at a cost of some two billion dollars it's the dawn of the big recall era Toyota had its own headache a few years ago around claims of unintended acceleration that were attributed to everything from peddle design to faulty electronics to misplaced carpet mats it did massive damage to the company's reputation flash-forwards of today GM's are calling 2.6 million cars with bad ignition switches that can pop back to the off position leaving the car a coasting dead weight with the airbags turned off I am deeply sorry we think the situation is tragic we're deeply sorry we apologize for what has happened as GM CEO Mary Barra was being grilled on Capitol Hill the refrain was familiar what did GM know and when did they know it but more importantly when did they let car owners know now recalls are a business that car makers don't want to be in in the US alone it amounts to some 12 billion dollars globally it's more like 40 billion that's three to five percent of automakers worldwide profits now know that recalls are not uncommon one quick glance at MIT says recall update page and you'll see there like a weekly occurrence and generally recalls have been on the rise for years you're not imagining things part of the reason that recalls are also on the rise is because cars are put to market sooner design more quickly source from vendors all over the globe who are kind of off doing their own thing and full of electronics where it's just harder to spot and find every bug for every use case more than 3/4 of all recalls are issued by the manufacturer without the feds having to apply pressure the big headline grabbing recalls however usually do involve it says little-known office some defect investigation it goes into action when a complaints are filed by owners like you and me since this authority was granted in 1966 Nitsa has ordered recalls on over 390 million vehicles 46 million tires 66 million pieces of other car equipment and 42 million child safety seats a recent battle between Chrysler and Mitsu over the fuel tanks and two point 1 million jeeps suggests recalls will get more common NHTSA says the gas tanks for those vehicles are susceptible to rupture in a rear-end crash and that could result in a gasoline spill and fire that case solidified the concept the car makers aren't necessarily off the hook just because they made a car that was safe in the year of manufacture they may have to bring it up to evolving safety standards years later but for the most part car makers are only required to do a free repair under recall on cars that are 10 years old or less you may still get a recall notice outside that window if they can still find you but the cost of the repair is probably on your nickel it still makes sense to tend to it though so then future liability if you sell that car isn't on your head if you did repair a problem covered by a recall out of your own pocket you may be entitled to reimbursement the eligibility is typically when you paid for the repair a year before the car maker told the feds about the problem all the way to 10 days after the last recall notices were mailed you can search for your car's recall status at mitzvahs safercar.gov site or download an iOS or Android app that will keep you up to date on the actions regarding your car or let you report the problems related to recalls RTS PS or technical service bulletins tf's bees are sent by the car maker to the dealer when they've learned that something's not quite right in a range of cars it could be through complaints or their own engineering research these are things that do not however rise to the level of safety or emissions compliance think about a bulky transmission a quirky climate control or failing paint the feds don't get involved in TS B's they leave it between you and your dealer and the dealer may not bring it up until and unless you bring in a car with a related complaint that's why it's important that you be a little proactive on these you can find the data about tsps on your car at sites like all datacom now it may also help to focus your attention on something in your car that hasn't been working right but you just sort of took for granted bring this to the attention of the dealer before your car's warranty is up because that's typically when a free repair under a tsp ends as well but always start with documentation that the issue is happening on your car don't just march in there with the TSB and say fix it as you can see in terms of both safety and your bank account it pays to double check your car's recalls and tsps