Summary
- Recalls affected 23 million cars, or about 8% of vehicles on US roads, in 2023
- Of those recalls, only about 33% of them were considered urgent/service immediately
- Both Ford and Honda combined accounted for 53% of all recalls in 2023
- Honda only had one major safety recall, while Ford had about 14 significant recalls
- Despite everything, we think you’re much more likely to have a flat tire than be affected by a recall, as only 2.7% of recalls are of the urgent/service immediately type
We like to believe today that almost nothing can go wrong with our vehicles, yet year after year, manufacturers send out service bulletins, send out ECU and firmware flashes for the control units that make everything work, and issue recalls if a significant issue is found.
It is that last item that is the focus of our analysis today. To first understand the analysis, we need to define what a recall actually is. By the purest definition, a recall is issued when a component of a vehicle has been found faulty.
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