The new leader of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the agency would be an “enforcer” under his leadership, and thus far, Mark Rosekind is making good on his word as Hyundai announced a recall of more than 200,000 Elantra sedans.
The South Korean automaker is recalling 205,000 Elantras in the U.S. and another 58,000 in Canada from model years 2008 through 2010. An electronic power steering sensor could malfunction, disabling the power steering making steering the vehicle more difficult.
That could increase the likelihood of a crash, according to NHTSA. Hyundai Motor America has not reported any injuries or accidents. The company plans to notify owners. Dealers will fix the problem at no cost to the owners. Owners with questions can call 855-671-3059.
Hyundai’s recall comes just days after FCA US recalled nearly 500,000 Dodge Durangos and Jeep Grand Cherokees from 2012 and 2013 with a fuel-pump problem. The problem could lead the vehicles to fail to start or stall while in operation.
(Hyundai shows new 2016 Tucson ahead of Geneva debut. For more, Click Here.)
A recent Stout Risius Ross study reveals that recalls are likely to remain at higher than historical levels this year because federal safety officials are getting better at determining when there is a problem and getting automakers to take action, which will mean more recalls than normal this year, even after setting a record last year of 63.9 million: more than double the previous record.
The possibility of another year of big recall numbers shouldn’t be all that surprising as Rosekind has already predicted it would happen.
(Click Here for details about the upgrades for the new Hyundai Veloster and Elantra.)
“I think we could actually see an increase in the number of recalls. The reality is that means your system is working. We’d rather have people on the proactive end catching stuff really early,” he said. “I’d rather have people be preemptive than waiting too long and making a mistake, because you can’t save those lives after they’re gone.”
(To see why there could be more recalls than normal this year, Click Here.)
In short, this year could lead to more recalls, but in smaller numbers. The large multi-million vehicle recalls get the headlines, and actions involving more than 100,000 vehicles accounted for more than 30% of all recalls in 2014, but most involve much smaller numbers: 10,000 or less.
