Vehicle recall not a bad word anymore!

“Car Recall”, a word that previously added chills to Indian customers, is now becoming more of a friendly term and why not, the faulty parts get easily replaced in an hour or so without making any dent in wallet. In the last couple of years, car recalls are happening at regular basis which are now taken by customers more positively than ever before.

Recently in April, Maruti Suzuki recalled 1.5 lakh Swift Dzire in order to change the faulty fuel pump components. While a year ago, Ford India too called its 166,000 units of hatchback Figo and sedan Fiesta Classic. So the one question that arises in most minds is, why so many recalls? And why are the cars not build as strong as they were earlier? Well, to answer this particular question we called and talked to some experts of auto industry and the one thing that was common in their saying is - a recall does not mean that the vehicle is substandard or of poor quality. In fact a vehicle that runs on road passes through zillion standard tests under different climate and road conditions. When asked to a dealer (who does not want his name to be mentioned), that whether recall of a particular model hinders the sale or adds to the cancelation of any advance booking of a car, he replied, “No, infact recalls generally increase the goodwill of the company and increase the faith of the customer in a particular brand.”

The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) is responsible for maintaining the safety standards of a car, for which it does a thorough check of quality and control, before finally passing the car with all auto parts working to perfection. But due to regular wear and tear some problems may pop up later. If the complications are caused by any factory fitted part, then the manufacturer is bound to recall the vehicle and mend it the faulty part free of cost. Failing to do so, they are liable for a heavy penalty. 

The main reason for the recalls are - components fitted in fragile manner, using same component in different models and sometimes its just because of the extreme environmental conditions. Once the fault is discovered, manufacturer in order gain the trust, recall its vehicles which also shows a transparency between the car company and the customer.

Toyota, the largest car seller in the world has also topped in vehicle recall. The company globally recalled more than 70 lakh vehicles over the steering and airbag issues. So it does not matter how big a company is, as far as it's willing to rectify errors it will have a special place in the heart of its customers.