New Program Seeks to Educate Consumers About Vehicle Recalls

In recent years, consumers have been faced with record numbers of defective vehicles – and unfortunately, many of these cars are not being fixed. Drivers don't fix recalls for a number of different reasons, including lack of knowledge about the recall and the fact it can be a serious hassle to take a vehicle in for repairs.  When you are a new car owner, the last thing you want to be doing is getting your car fixed repeatedly, so you should make sure that you understand how the California Lemon Law and other consumer protection laws can protect your rights.

Unfortunately, when vehicle owners do not get their cars fixed after those vehicles have been recalled for safety issues, it puts the driver of the defective vehicle at risk and other motorists are also endangered as well. This is a big problem, which a new effort is being made to solve. The National Safety Council and Fiat Chrysler have teamed up to announce a new initiative aimed to reduce car accidents that can happen because of un-recalled vehicles, and Consumer Reports detailed their efforts in a recent article.

Educating Consumers on Recalls

According to Consumer Reports, The National Safety Council and Fiat Chrysler launched an ad campaign called Check to Protect, which is aimed at encouraging motorist to check if their cars need to be repaired and which works to prompt consumers to take action when there is a problem.

The campaign is vitally necessary because there are currently more than 53 million cars on U.S. roads that have an open recall – which means all of these cars have an unrepaired safety issue or defect.  The campaign encourages drivers to visit the website checktoprotect.org. When they visit this website, they'll be taken to the VIN lookup tool hosted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Drivers can input their VIN number or can input the year, make and model of their vehicle to see if there are any active recalls.

The director of cars for Consumers Union believes this campaign is a good first step, but that auto makers still need to do more in order to try to encourage drivers to actually get their cars fixed when a defect is announced. Some of the other changes that Consumers Union advocates for include making sure replacement parts for recalled vehicles are available in a timely manner; changing the law so that used cars cannot be sold until fixes are made if there are outstanding recalls; and offering financial incentives to drivers to get them to actually get repairs made.

Unfortunately, it is consumers who have to deal with the hassle of getting fixes done to their vehicles and it is consumers who are endangered when repairs are not made. Any motorist whose vehicle is defective should understand all of their rights under consumer protection laws, including California's lemon laws, so they can make sure they are taking advantage of all remedies available to them related to their car problems.