JANUARY 2024 NEWSLETTER
Early Results: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Issued More than 320 Recalls Covering More than 32 Million Vehicles
Later this year, Recall Masters will issue its 2023 State of Recalls, a detailed report that addresses the year in vehicle recalls. Just before 2023 closed out, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued it's year-end report. Why the gap between the release of the two reports? If NHTSA data is publicly accessible, why wait for the report from Recall Masters? The answers should challenge how the automotive industry leadership views manufacturing defects and what the public has the right to know.
"NHTSA data doesn't tell the full story," explains Sean Reyes, Chief Marketing Officer for Recall Masters, the auto industry's foremost authority on recalls. "Formal NHTSA campaigns are announced and fall within the 2023 year, but it does not include hundreds of other investigations that are still under review. The OEMs have done an amazing job in being transparent about manufacturing defects or areas of concern that require more time to review. Those may end up being federally-mandated campaigns in later years, may never be deemed worthy of a formal recall or be too complex for NHTSA to come to any determination."
Later this spring, as the company has done every year for the last 7 years, Recall Masters will publish a report that illuminates NHTSA recalls as well as those "voluntary" recalls that represent manufacturing defects that are not yet deemed formal NHTSA recalls. Read the related article on the LiveNOW Fox website. To look back at the 2022 State of Recalls, click here.
Ford Recalls Almost 113,000 F-150 Trucks

Ford is recalling 112,965 F-150 trucks equipped with the Trailer Tow Max Duty package and a 9.75-inch heavy duty axle with a 3/4 float axle design. The rear axle hub bolt may fatigue and break, which can result in damage to the axle hub splines. According to NHTSA, damaged axle hub splines can result in the vehicle to roll away when the vehicle is in park without the parking brake applied, or cause a loss of drive power, both of which can increase the risk of crash. Read more on the USA Today website.
Tesla's Recall Remedy Deemed Insufficient by Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports is suggesting that Tesla’s fix for its Autopilot recall of more than 2 million vehicles is “insufficient”, following preliminary tests. Consumer Reports discovered that it’s still possible to cover the cabin camera while using Autopilot, meaning drivers can neutralize one of the two main ways the car monitors if they are paying attention to the road. Does a piece of tape preserve a dangerous feature? Read more on the TechCrunch website.
Why is Customer Retention Taking Center Stage?
A Blog Post by Sean Reyes, Chief Marketing Officer for Recall Masters 
 
Walk the aisles of this year’s NADA show and take in the hottest topic shaping the automotive industry – retention. It is a recycled theme, having formerly taking the stage as “customer service”, “the customer experience” and about a dozen other phrases that encapsulate the importance of how consumers interface with your dealership. But retention is a unique business matter in that it reveals its despised counterpart – defection. The demon is at our doors and, for the first time in the industry’s history, franchised dealers no longer the alpha predator when it comes to vehicle servicing.
Service departments at franchised dealerships recently crossed a threshold that not only dropped jaws in the fixed ops community, but throughout the automotive repair industry. For almost 100 years, dealerships were the preferred service center for consumers when it came to vehicle service. When Cox Automotive released the 2023 Service Industry Study last December, the win streak came to an end. For the first time in study history, General Repair Shops were the preferred service facility (33%) to Dealership Service Departments (31%). The proximity, lower prices and convenient scheduling offered at independent repair shops is coupled with a drop in the consumer’s trust of dealerships.
You don’t need consumer surveys or detailed reports to recognize that the independents are feasting on customer defection. Just step outside of any dealership and scan the multitude of retail stores offering tires, wheel alignments, brake jobs, mufflers and general repair work. It’s all customer pay (CP) revenue! There’s not a franchise dealer that isn’t trying to increase CP work, but most aren’t interested in the low-margin tickets, even if that’s all the vehicle needs. Combatting technician shortages, hefty operations overhead and decreased capacity, we’ve all but invited consumers to shop the independents. And, now, with the realization that we’ve also lost out on higher margin repairs that come as vehicles get older as well as the future new car sales that spin out of repeat servicing, dealerships are fixated on retention...Read the blog post in its entirety on the Recall Masters website.
In Recent Recall Campaign News
Porsche Recalls more than 41,000 vehicles with Charging Issue
 
Porsche is recalling 41,345 vehicles due to a problem with some home power outlets which may cause the charging cable to overheat and lead to a fire. Read more about this recall campaign on the Consumer Affairs website.

Kia Recalls Sorrento SUVs for Defective Software
 
Kia is recalling nearly 80,000 Sorento SUVs, limited only to the 2011 model year. Software for the knock sensor detection system was not installed at the time of manufacture. As a result, an engine compartment fire may occur while driving. Read more about this recall campaign on the Cars.com website.
For more recall campaign news, visit our consumer site MotorSafety.org
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