Cars with the most and least recalls
Some models get recalled for safety-related defects at a much higher rate than others
Car and truck recalls to correct safety-related problems continue to dominate the news, with 37 million models being involved in such campaigns last year.
As it is, it can be a headache and a hassle to bring a car or truck back to the dealership for an inspection and repair, but if it’s a major recall involving hundreds of thousands of vehicles, owners may have difficulty having the problem fixed in a timely manner due to an overworked service department and/or a shortage of parts.
But as it turns out, some models are historically more or less prone to be recalled than others, according to the statisticians at the car shopping website iSeeCars. com in Woburn, Massachusetts. They looked at recall campaigns for all vehicles from the 2013-2017 model years via the National Highway Traffic Administration’s database to determine the average recall rates for each model having annual sales of 50,000 or more.
Overall, the subcompact Hyundai Accent is the vehicle that historically has the lowest recall rate, at 0.10 per 100,000 units sold annually, while the Mercedes-Benz C-Class posted the highest recall rate at 5.77 vehicles per 100,000 sold. That makes the C-Class 7.3 times more likely to be recalled than the industry average for the 2013-2017 model years, which stands at 0.79 per 100,000 sold.
“Luxury cars are packed with features, and each additional feature can be another point of failure,” says iSeeCars.com’s CEO Phong Ly. “This could explain why C-Class owners have to contend with so many recall-related headaches.” Otherwise the list of most-recalled models tends to be dominated by domestic-branded models, particularly full-size cars and trucks, while eight out of the top 10 models on the least recalled list come from Asian automakers.
Used-car shoppers in particular will want to pay attention to these lists, given the high number of outstanding recalls in the industry, to avoid having to play catch-up shortly after taking possession. According to the title search company CarFax in Centreville, Virginia, one out of every five vehicles in the U.S. is still being operated with one or more unfulfilled recalls.
Keep in mind, however, though most affected models are recalled for defects that could result in death, injury, a crash, or a fire, some are called back for what are comparatively minor issues, such as to replace or correct a page in a vehicle’s owner’s manual.
Those shopping for a used car or truck are advised to
search NHTSA’s online database themselves (at http://www.safercar. org/vinlookup) to determine if a specific vehicle from a given year is at risk because of uncorrected
safety-related recalls. Users can search for issued recalls by entering a model’s vehicle identification number, which is both noted on a car or truck’s title and can be found at the dashboard on the driver’s side of the vehicle, or on the driver’s side door on the door post.