Am I Driving a Defective or Recalled Car? Click to Find Out!
My law firm has worked on cases where people have been injured by defective and recalled automobiles.
Even more alarming, family-oriented types like Minivans and SUVs are more likely to have open recalls on the road. In any given year, only about 75 percent of recalled vehicles actually get fixed, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which administers recalls. Are people too busy to bring their cars in for recall maintenance? Have they been properly informed? Owners of the remaining 25 percent are either unaware of the recalls or, as one recent study suggests, ignore them because fixing the problem would be an inconvenience.
How do you know if your car has a recall notice? Keep your registration up to date. Go thru your mail thoroughly. In addition to the mailing you should receive, NHTSA keeps a comprehensive, current database of safety-related recalls. A quick online search using your car's VIN number will let you see all related open recalls, as well as information about repairs. You'll also have the option of getting future recall alerts by e-mail.