Cars - For Car Enthusiasts

Its important to note, as a professionally trained automechanic of 11+ years, recalls are good. They're good for everyone. I mean, they're usually not good for us techs because we are almost always underpaid to do the repairs, but they're good for us at least on the road.

Recalls are good because it means they have identified a problem and have a solution. They make cars safer for everyone on the road. If a recall never comes out, then either the issue didn't effect enough vehicles and they were repaired or it was not something that was a safety issue such as interior trim discoloration or something.

"Oh but the manufacturer KNEW it would be a problem," yeah, no they usually don't. That might only apply to like, the Fiero starter fires which effected a small number of vehicles. But usually its just an issue with third party parts supplier manufacturing that they couldn't have known about from their QA testing. For something like a starter they'll typically test it for function on a test bench, because installing it in the vehicle and testing that way for every part would take too long and cost too much.

Its also good to note that not all issues become a recall, and may have a TSB instead. Which is similar but its not usually safety related and generally something that happens whenever the customer brings their vehicle for service next time. They're not typically immediate issues that need to be resolved but some TSBs may later become recalls. Generally, customers are not informed of TSBs because they don't always apply to every vehicle even in the same production run. So even if you find a TSB for your vehicle, printing it out and dropping it on us like we are supposed to do soemthing about it is just going to get you laughed at. If a TSB applies, it will automatically be done during the repairs on your vehicle.