Recalls Up Over 25% in 2007

14.2 million vehicles were recalled in 2007 — up nearly 27% from 2006’s number of 11.2 million recalled vehicles. The numbers aren’t encouraging, but are below the 30.8 million recalled in 2004.

The silver lining is that much of the jump was attributed to a single problem with Ford vehicles. 4.8 million 2004-and-older vehicles were recalled due to a faulty cruise control switch. Ford had 5.5 million recalled vehicles overall. Volkswagen also recalled 1.5 million vehicles, up from 950,000 in 2006.

General Motors saw the biggest improvement in recalls. The company recalled 61% fewer vehicles through Dec. 21, dropping its number from 1.37 million vehicles to 537,992 vehicles. Honda’s apparent drop from 1.19 million vehicles to 547,215 — a 54% decline — might sound positive, but most of the recalls in 2006 were for an erroneous contact number in Honda owner manuals, not mechanical defects. It would be hard to do better than 2006’s recall of just 1,397 mechanical recalls, but the jump to over half a million is quite high.

Toyota also saw a decline to 573,554 recalls from 657,308. Nissan was down slightly from 1.3 million to 1.2 million vehicles mostly due to a single recall of 696,600 Altimas and Sentras.

Some analysts point to manufacturers expanding existing recalls as the main reason for the jump and highlight the older model years involved as a sign that newer models have fewer issues. Of course, it could also easily be said that it takes time for new problems to surface.

Auto Recalls Up More Than 25% (The Detroit News)