Toyota and Ford Top Are Automakers with Most Vehicles Recalled in 2009
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that car manufacturers recalled 16.4 million vehicles last year. While there were less recall campaigns overall—492 recall campaigns in 2009 compared to 684 campaigns in 2008, automakers recalled 6 million more autos last year.
Toyota led the car manufacturer list with most vehicles recalled. The car manufacturer’s reputation for passenger safety took a beating after four people were killed when its floor mat on the driver's side jammed a 2009 Lexus ES 350’s gas pedal, causing the vehicle to accelerate to over 100 mph before crashing. Following the fatal car wreck, the Toyota announced a recall involving 4.26 million vehicles—its largest recall ever—to fix acceleration problems. In total, Toyota announced 9 campaigns and recalled 4.87 million autos last year.
Among the other automakers that recalled vehicles in 2009:
• Ford Motor Co.: 8 campaigns that recalled 4.5 million vehicles.
• General Motors Co.: 16 campaigns and 2.2 million autos recalled.
• Honda Motor Co.: 4 campaigns and 454,000 motor vehicles. Honda was the only auto manufacturer to see a drop in the number of vehicles it recalled in 2009 compared to the year before. The car manufacturer recalled 797,000 autos in 2008.
• Chrysler Group LLC: 15 campaigns and 59,000 vehicles.
• Nissan Motor Co.’s Kia Unit: 8 campaigns and 1.3 million autos.
• Volkswagen AG: 8 campaigns and 100,000 recalled autos.
While recalling a vehicle to fix a particular defect is a positive step toward preventing injuries and deaths, car manufacturers should not be designing, making, and selling vehicles that have any type of vehicle defect to begin with. Auto defects are not minor glitches that can be easily fixed. There are lives at stake whenever someone gets in a car that can potentially malfunction because a specific part was defective or poorly manufactured.
Do NOT be intimidated by a giant car manufacturer when it comes to pursuing an auto products liability claim for personal injury or death. Our auto products liability lawyers represents clients who were seriously injured or lost loved ones in car accidents because of structural defects, faulty engines, a seat back defects, a poorly designed seat belts, weak vehicle roofs, defective tires, faulty airbags, or other flawed vehicle parts.
Auto recalls surge in '09, NHTSA says, Detroit News, January 12, 2010
Recalls, NHTSA
Related Web Resources:
Auto Recalls, Justia
Consumer Reports
Until relatively recently, many vehicles used seat belt buckles with buttons on their sides, rather than their ends. These were exposed to unintended release in accidents, including side impacts where the buckles would strike a center console or the occupant’s hip, inertially releasing the buckle (where inertia effectively “pushes” the button, undoing the seat belt). Most vehicles have now moved to end release designs. This is good, but not enough. End release buckles can also be released inertially unless they use a very inexpensive small part – which costs just pennies – that prevents such release. Fortunately, these release-resistant buckles are found in many vehicles – the rest need to follow suit. Most car makers also require that the buckle release button be recessed and small enough that it isn’t exposed to accidental release from an elbow or hand flailing in an accident. They use a very low-tech test for this: It should be impossible to push the button with a steel ball 30 mm or larger. Unfortunately, a few seatbelt systems fail to meet this simple, common sense test. 
