That's a really good question because I doubt if you can expect them to go on forever. In business that's called contingent liabilities, and that's a bad thing as you have to plan for them forever. A 1997 vehicle with a recall is probably something that was taken care of a long time ago.

In fact if you stop by a GM dealer when they do their "FREE INSPECTION CHECKUP!", which most seem to be doing a couple of times per year (just check your mail for one of their mailers), they will run your VIN and let you know if the recall has been completed on that vehicle or not as they all keep records on these things by VIN. Now, that doesn't mean that they will do the recall if it's not been already serviced, but it will at least tell you if it's been completed or not.

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Better yet, send me your VIN in a PM and I will send it along to a friend who works at a local Chevy dealer and ask as a favor for him to pull the VIN to see if the recalls have been done or not.

Recalls have no expiration dates. If a dealer refuses to do recall work for free then go to another dealership and file a complaint, not sure with who though. I always find out what recalls the used auto I buy have and I get the work done. I've never had an issue getting the work done for free whether the recall was 3 years old or 12. Like Steve said, a 97 in 2013 has probably had the work done already, but give the VIN number to the dealership to find out for sure.