By Erin Delmore
Correspondent
If you totaled the number of auto recalls last year alone, you’d end up with four years’ worth of cars sold in the U.S. — one out of every four on the road today.
“Our cars are major computers now and computers oftentimes have little bugs in them that we have to go back and fix. Think about your phone. How many times a year do you get an operating system change? Cars don’t have that ability,” said NJ AAA Public Affairs and Government Relations Director Cathleen Lewis.
New car dealers can’t sell cars that have been recalled until they are fixed. But if you’re buying a used car, who is legally required to let you know there’s a recall? Turns out, no one is. So is the airbag in the steering wheel of that used car you just purchased one of the 30 million that have been found to explode?
It’s a gap Assemblyman Paul Moriarty is trying to close. He’s sponsored legislation which would require used car dealers to notify customers of any outstanding recalls at the point of sale.
“At that point they can do one of many things, they can say no thanks, don’t want to buy the car. They can say okay, well I’ll still buy the car but you get it fixed. Or they can say I’ll buy the car but I’d like to pay less money,” Moriarty said.
Car dealers say it’s a critical piece of information that consumers don’t usually ask for.
“Generally they’re always asking for the Carfax to make sure there’s no accidents, anything like that, but they never look for open recalls because that’s not usually a concern of the general public,” said J&S AutoHaus Finance Director Matthew Domingo. “It should be, definitely.”
Last summer, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched a VIN-lookup tool. To see any open recalls, enter your car’s VIN number, or start by checking the make and model. Assemblyman Moriarty’s legislation would put that responsibility on used car dealerships.
“Competitively, this is what people want to be doing anyway. They need this to make sales,” Moriarty said.
“Well I think that the due diligence belongs to the customer but the dealers try to provide as much information as we can.,” said Coleman Auto Group Vice President Bill Kendall.
AAA says recall checks should be part of regular car maintenance.
“All the pieces of your car are linked together. While it may not seem like it’s something that you care about because you’re not using it, it may have other consequences on your vehicle which will cost you more. Because the damage done by not fixing the recall, will not be covered by the recall,” Lewis said.
If your think this is an issue that doesn’t affect you, look around. A recent federal study revealed that one in four of cars recalled between 2006 and 2010 remain unrepaired. That’s a staggering 36 million cars on the road right now.