U.S. Auto Recalls Set Record
January 21 2016 - 3:50PM
Dow Jones News
WASHINGTON—Auto makers recalled a record 51.26 million vehicles
in the U.S. in 2015, continuing a historic surge for car companies
facing an unprecedented government crackdown on safety lapses.
The total topped the 50.99 million vehicles recalled in 2014,
regulators said Thursday.
The recalls in each of the past two years surpass any annual
total logged by federal regulators in nearly five decades. U.S.
regulators track recalls back to 1966.
The 2014 figure was revised downward from 64 million, in part
due to changes in counting recalls linked to rupture-prone air bags
made by Japanese supplier Takata Corp. Recalls began surging that
year as General Motors Co. faced questions over defective ignition
switches now linked to 124 deaths, and as nearly all car makers
were affected by Takata air bags.
"Clearly, massive recalls are still a prominent part of the
safety landscape," said Mark Rosekind, head of the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, referring to the recall figures
during remarks at the Washington Auto Show.
"Part of what's happened is a vigilance in looking for defects
and getting them addressed," Mr. Rosekind said. He said it would
take a couple of years to see whether car makers had become
consistently proactive in addressing safety problems.
Mr. Rosekind on Thursday detailed a new, yearlong
online-advertising campaign from regulators aimed at encouraging
consumers to use a government vehicle-identification-number
database to spot open recalls and to prod them to quickly get
repairs. About 25% of U.S. owners of recalled vehicles never get
free repairs, according to auto makers.
The campaign comes after car makers vowed last week, in a
meeting with government officials in Detroit, to better alert
regulators to defects, fix recalled vehicles faster and improve
cybersecurity. Some lawmakers and safety advocates criticized the
agreement for lacking penalties if car makers don't improve. Mr.
Rosekind said voluntary measures are preferable to enforcement and
emphasized that chief executives of car makers had gathered
together to discuss safety for the first time at the December
summit with regulators in Washington.
"We support education efforts beyond what auto makers are
already doing to increase the consumer participation rate, and we
urge consumers to regularly check NHTSA's website to find out if
their vehicle has open recalls," said the Alliance of Automobile
Manufacturers, a Washington lobbying group representing a dozen car
companies, including GM and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV.
The blistering recall pace comes amid unprecedented scrutiny of
auto makers' safety practices. Car companies in the U.S. over the
past two years have racked up significant financial penalties and
agreed to unprecedented audits stemming from criminal and
regulatory probes.
The outsize recall total in part traces to more than 19 million
vehicles equipped with rupture-prone Takata air bags linked to nine
deaths. A dozen car makers are recalling the vehicles.
Regulators have ramped up oversight after facing criticism from
lawmakers and others for failing to better police auto companies. A
government audit last year found regulators too often relied on
auto makers to report safety defects, culminating in a failure to
spot GM's defective switch.
Car makers, meanwhile, are recalling more vehicles than ever to
get ahead of government investigations and attempt to stem
criticism from government officials and others for dithering on
safety problems. GM in September agreed to pay a $900 million
penalty to settle a Justice Department probe of its defective
switches and admitted to misleading regulators and consumers.
Fiat Chrysler is among the auto makers bearing the brunt of
regulators' increased scrutiny. The Italian-U.S. company in 2015
recalled more than 11.5 million vehicles, more than any other car
maker, according to government data. About 4 million were on
account of Takata air bags. Another 1.4 million were recalled after
hackers commandeered a moving Jeep's controls from a laptop miles
away, though nobody was injured.
The company in 2015 suffered significant fines for lapses with
recalls covering millions of vehicles, including older Jeeps with
rear gas tanks linked to dozens of fatal fires. Regulators fined
Fiat Chrysler again in December for failing legal requirements to
report deaths, injuries, warranty claims, consumer complaints and
other information to help regulators spot possible safety problems
that could need a recall.
Fiat Chrysler in a statement pointed to recent overhauled safety
practices, including hiring more people and rolling out an Internet
portal that consolidates recalls to help dealers assist
customers.
Honda Motor Co., which also faced a fine for safety-reporting
lapses at the end of 2013, recalled roughly 11 million vehicles
last year, according to government data. The Japanese auto maker's
increased recalls are largely due to Takata air bags. A Honda
spokesman said many Takata air-bag inflaters in the total were
subject to repair under previous actions in 2014. Only about three
million vehicles in total from Honda and the company's luxury Acura
unit "were newly subject to recall repair in 2015," the spokesman
said.
Write to Mike Spector at mike.spector@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 21, 2016 15:35 ET (20:35 GMT)
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