Making it to #1 on any list is normally a good thing, but not when you top the list of the most number of recalls for an automotive brand. Fiat Chrysler has recently earned this dubious honor with the recent discovery of a new cruise control problem.
The New Fiat Chrysler Recall
The Wall Street Journal published a news report stating that Fiat Chrysler has launched a new recall campaign last May 2018. The recall involved a possible defect in more than 5 million vehicles, and this defect can prevent drivers from cancelling the cruise control mode. The inability to cancel cruise control can result in a maintained vehicle speed despite a driver’s wish to regain manual control of the vehicle’s speed.
So far, no injuries have yet to be reported as a result of this potential flaw in the Fiat Chrysler vehicles. Nonetheless, it is still a potential hazard, as drivers may wish to slow down due to traffic congestion and the flaw may prevent them from reducing the cruise control speed.
These recalls are hopefully making fiat cars safer, however they are causing a mistrust in the brand. If you have been in an accident in a fiat under suspicious circumstances you should call a car accident lawyer to look into it.
A Tally of Fiat Chrysler Recalls
As the brand with the most number of vehicle recalls, this is not the only instance in which Fiat Chrysler has issue a recall for their vehicles. According to the WSJ analysis of the government data, in just this year alone the FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) corporation has launched more than 2 dozen campaigns during which more than 6 million of their vehicles have been recalled.
In comparison, the 2nd place goes to Ford Motors, which has had 2 million of their vehicles recalled so far.
It is not just in this year alone that FCA has posted a rather unimpressive history involving recalls. In fact, over the last 3 years no other US automaker has recalled more vehicles than the Fiat Chrysler brand.
The FCA recalled a total of 5.4 million vehicles in 2017, but their record was much worse in 2016 when they recalled up to 8.8 million vehicles. Still, it can be considered an improvement compared to the brand’s recall record in 2015, when they recalled an astonishing 11.5 million vehicles.
Some of the brand’s representatives, however, maintain that part of the responsibility rests on the manufacturers of the equipment they use in their vehicles. These include the use of exploding Takata airbags as well as defective GM ignition switches. These two defects have been linked to as many as 124 fatalities and 275 injuries.
What to Do if you are Involved in an Accident
If you have purchased a new car, it is your responsibility to stay updated whenever there’s a recall that involves the model you bought. If you have bought a used car, you should make sure that if it has been recalled that the appropriate repairs have been performed. You can do that easily enough by running your VIN through the NHTSA website.
There is no upside to ignoring a product recall, as the risk is simply too great. Repairs for recalled vehicles are done at no cost to you, as the vehicle owner.