The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today released their numbers of recalls done by automakers in 2011. The total for 2011 stands at 15.5 million vehicles and 593 recall campaigns. The numbers are less than 2010 totals of 20.1 million vehicles and 648 campaigns.

Honda was the top automaker in recalls with 3.9 million vehicles recalled during 2011. Honda initially disputed the number put out by NHTSA, but later said it agreed to the number.

Honda spokesman Chris Martin said the majority of Honda's recalls were to find a small number of faulty parts.

"We're playing it safe. We want to make sure we find all of these parts," Martin told The Detroit News.

Following behind Honda was Toyota with 3.5 million vehicles recalled in 13 campaigns. Toyota hasn't had any pending investgations for five months.

"We're really just moving forward and working to satisfy our customers," said Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons.

Third place went to Ford with 3.3 million vehicles recalled in 13 campaigns. Most of Ford's recalls dealt with older vehicles.

"Ford is committed to providing our customers with top-quality vehicles. Part of this commitment includes addressing any issues quickly and responsibly. We don't focus on numbers as much as we focus on making sure we deliver safe and high-quality products to our customers," said Ford spokesman Daniel Pierce.

NHTSA spokeswoman Lynda Tran said the numbers should be put into context.

"There are a host of reasons why a manufacturer could have more or fewer recalls in a given year or over time, including its barometer for measuring risk which could be more conservative or liberal as contrasted to other manufacturers or the industry as a whole. Since these summary numbers do not factor in or weight averages based on production, the largest OEMs tend to top the list each year."

Source: The Detroit News

 

My neighbor has a late model Toyota. He has had a lot of problems but it seems to be ok now. Fords don't seem to have big problems except for the diesels. The have had a ton of problems in the past. The old 7.3 was pretty good, but when they came out with the 6.0 it was a nightmare. I think the newer ones are better. But to work on the engine you have to lift the body off the frame.

I used to have a Nissan van. It had recalls all the time. They would overheat and cause fires. It went on for a few years and finally Nissan bought them all back and crushed them.

A recall can be something simple that doesn't really reflect on the company, or it can be something that makes you think twice about buying one.

 

There are recalls and ther are campains ........... and they are not quite the same. That said Toyota has hurt quality trying to outsell GM over the years. Honda has been having troubles without the press getting on them,

 

It looks like Ford just announced another one.

 

American Motors has not had any at all since 1988!
Oh yeah, that is when they went out of business. That is probably the reason I am not getting any on my Saturn.
Come to think of it, the funniest recalls were on my Pontiac Fiero. One of which was a plaque to place on the console so that it could be seen to remind you to check the radiator often for water level.
Yuh! I am sure that one was well thought out. I wish now I had saved the dang plaque instead of throwing it out. There was a car that I really like that was really poorly designed in many ways. The radiator cooling system being one of them.

 

But what a cool little car it was.

 

I was that close to buying Fiero GT ........ was a very cool little car. Could be a great project car to have today when adding a 2.4L VVT ... 2.0L turbo would be great if you could keep it running cool.

 

Mine was an 84 I think, a 4 cylinder 5 speed car. It had a pointy nose rather than the vacuum cleaner one. It looked like a baby Ferrari and ran around town like a modern version of an MG TD. It was soooo fun to drive. You could actually install almost any GM engine in it that had the small block Chevy Bell housing bolt pattern and more than a few small block Chevy's ended up in them. I bought it for my 2nd wife. I had a chance to buy a used 87 Camero IROC Z28, a T-top car that had a ton of money put into it, so I did, loved it too. When my 2nd wife left she took the car. I miss that damned car.

 

I almost did the IROC-Z too. Just didn't have the power I wanted a Camaro to have.

 

The 87 was the last of the Iroc cars and this one had all the ground effect costmetics installed of the latest Z28's except the hood which looked good. As a T-top it had the tuned port 305 in it as GM did not install the 350's in the T-top that year (if any and I don't know that) I was not looking for brute power when I bought it as a used car. It had just come out of the paint shop and was a looker. The tuned port 305 was almost as quick as my built 390 in my Javelin which taught me that Detroit could indeed built power house smog engines if they wanted to. The 700r4 was in the right gear all the time and if it wasn't you tickle the throttle and it went there. The bonus was it got 28mpg on the open road and was built to live on it. That car is the reason I am currently building a Mercury Marine engine and a 700R4 to install in my Hornet Station wagon. Now if I could only get those steam roller sized wheels and tires from the Cobra that I have in the garage to fit under the fenderwells of my Hornet I would be thrilled. But the biggest wheel spacer I can get is 1 and 1/2 inches and that is a gamble and I am not sure I could get that to work with out problems. Dang, the price right on those wheels.