Do You Need To Worry About Automobile Recall?

An automobile recall is basically an announcement about a defect in a car that may affect the cars safety. Defects may occur at the engineering stage and affect all particular models of a car, or they may be production errors that affect only cars made in a specific period at a specific plant. Automobile recalls really begin with customers of a car. When customers notice a design flaw in a car that affects the safety of the car, they can contact the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) at 1-888-DASH-2-DOT or online at www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/. Once enough customers make complaints about the same car, the NHTSA launches an investigation into the problem and publishes their findings. The manufacturer of the car can launch an automobile recall. If they do not do this, the government has the right to launch a recall via the NHTS

A: In most cases, though, manufacturers launch automobile recalls themselves since they wish to preserve their reputations. There are more than one thousand recalls in this country each year, so the chances of being affected by some automobile recall at some point in your life are pretty good. Your chances of being affected by an automobile recall also increase if the car you buy is fairly new and is a newly designed model. Some manufacturers seem to be more plagued by automobile recall problems than others. If the thought of an automobile recall really troubles you, you should consult reviews of car makes and models to find out how many recalls specific automobile manufacturers have issued in the past five years. If your car has been recalled, you will get an Official Safety Recall Notice in the mail that will provide details about the automobile recall and directions that tell the car owner what to do. An automobile recall is also generally publicized in the news, so some car owners may find out about

the problem that way. Generally, if your car is subject to an automobile recall, you are asked to bring the car back to the dealership. You should call the dealership to find out about the automobile recall ahead of the time. Most of the time, the problem in your car will be repaired. However, this may take some time, especially if lots of people affected by the automobile recall take their cars into the dealership at the same time to have their own cars repaired. Some dealerships will provide you with a car while your car is being fixed, but this is far from standard procedure. For more people affected by an automobile recall, finding a replacement car is their own responsibility.