In the Land of the Free, one would think a free car repair would have vehicle owners flocking to dealerships to take advantage of the deal; however, that isn’t — and traditionally hasn’t been — the case in the U.S. with more than 50 million vehicles subject to recalls on the road without the require repairs.
To be fair, Americans are getting better as the number is down nearly 6% from last year. But it’s still a massive number of vehicles that, in some cases, are potentially putting drivers and passengers in danger.
“We are heading in the right direction when it comes to the number of open recalls on the road, but the numbers remain incredibly high” said Faisal Hasan, general manager of Data at CarFax. “We still have a long way to go but free recall monitoring services, such as CarFax Car Care, are making a difference.”
California saw a 12% drop in the number of open recalls there. CarFax executives noted California drivers also have the highest number of registered vehicles in the CarFax Car Care app. Nearly 4 million Vehicle Identification Numbers are registered.
Biggest offenders
It appears the busiest people in the U.S. live in Mississippi as residents of the Magnolia state are more likely than any other to ignore the letters and emails telling them to bring their vehicle in for what is likely a covered repair.
Nearly a quarter of all vehicles with open recalls go unrepaired there, with Texas and Louisiana a close second for open recalls at 23 percent.
In terms of pure volume, California still has the largest number of vehicles with open recalls at 5.6 million vehicles, despite the double-digit improvement year-over-year. The top 10 states with the most open recalls are:
- California: 5.6 million
- Texas: 5.1 million
- Florida: 3.1 million
- New York: 1.9 million
- Pennsylvania: 1.8 million
- Ohio: 1.8 million
- Georgia: 1.7 million
- North Carolina: 1.6 million
- Illinois: 1.6 million
- Michigan: 1.4 million
Services like CarFax are helpful, especially for older used vehicles that may have had a few owners. Despite efforts by governmental agencies and automakers, there are still vehicles affected by recalls where the owner gets no notification a repair is needed.
Other options
Vehicle owners or people looking to buy a used car can find out if there is an open recall on a specific vehicle by going to the website of the vehicle brand, i.e. Chevrolet, Honda, Ford, etc. There is a specific spot on the site that allows someone to input a VIN and it will let them know if there is an open recall.
Additionally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website offers the same option. A nearby auto dealer can also check for open recalls on a vehicle.
The total number of vehicles recalled in 2021 dropped to 21.6 million from 28.9 million in 2020. However, there were more recall action last year, 406, compared to the previous year’s total of 317. It should be noted that with only rare exceptions, recall repairs are done at no cost to the vehicle owner.
