The auto industry recalled almost 64 million vehicles for safety problems last year, a record, according to figures released on Thursday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.þþThe number of recalled vehicles exceeded the total for the previous three years combined.þþThe agency and automakers faced intense scrutiny in 2014 and sometimes scorching criticism from Congress about whether safety defects were being investigated properly and vehicles recalled promptly.þþOf the 803 vehicle recalls, 123 resulted from N.H.T.S.A. investigations or contacts with automakers. The other 680 were initiated by the automakers after they discovered a problem and, as the law requires, reported it.þþWhile the recalls last year covered a wide range of defects, two problems were most prominent, affecting millions of vehicles: faulty ignitions in General Motors cars, and flaws in Takata airbags that could send shards of metal into the passenger compartment.þþThe assembly line at the General Motors Fairfax plant in Kansas City, Mo. G.M. said union workers would receive profit-sharing checks that exclude the costs of recalls.Despite Recalls, G.M. Pays Workers a Big BonusFEB. 4, 2015þSeveral cars at All Stars Auto Sales in Cypress, Tex., are under recall, including some of the Chevrolets, but they have not yet been fixed.Buyers of Used Cars Are Left to Find Recalls on Their OwnJAN. 30, 2015þA technician performs a recall service on a Chevrolet Cobalt ignition switch at a dealership in Grand Blanc, Mich.Auto Industry Galvanized After Record Recall Year DEC. 30, 2014þAn investigation last year by The New York Times of the N.H.T.S.A. found that the agency had frequently been slow to identify problems, tentative to act and reluctant to employ its full legal powers against companies.þþIn a statement on Thursday, Mark R. Rosekind, who was confirmed in December as the agency’s administrator, said, “These figures demonstrate the need for vigorous, effective oversight to remove safety defects from our highways.”þþThe agency said the 123 recalls it prompted resulted in the recall of 19.1 million vehicles. That was, the agency said, “the highest number of vehicles recalled due to N.H.T.S.A. investigations and enforcement efforts” since 1981. But that was also the smallest number of recalls resulting from agency action since 2010. In 2013 the agency influenced 166 recalls, but that resulted in the recall of only 7.1 million vehicles because the problems affected fewer models.þþThe number of vehicles affected by a single recall can vary widely.þþIn a departure from its practice in previous years, N.H.T.S.A. did not release the number of recalls by manufacturer. But General Motors accounted for almost 27 million of the recalled vehicles, the automaker said.þþAccording to the automakers, Honda recalled about 8.9 million vehicles last year, Fiat Chrysler recalled about 8.8 million, Toyota recalled about six million and Ford recalled almost 4.9 million.þþAutomakers recalled almost 22 million vehicles in 2013 and about 16 million a year in 2011 and 2012.þþThe agency also said that almost 7.7 million seats designed to restrain children in an accident were recalled in 2014, the second-highest number since it began recording such actions in 1972.þþAlmost all of those child restraint seats were recalled as a result of pressure from the federal regulators on Graco Children’s Products, which recalled about 6.1 million seats, and the Evenflo Company, which recalled 1.6 million. The seats had the same problem, a bulky buckle that federal regulators worried could trap a child in a seat.þþ
Source: NY Times
