CBC News has found through a study that millions of automobiles in Canada - an estimated one in six - have an outstanding safety recall. That number included cars with particular safety defects that could lead to crashes, injuries, or death, manufacturers confirmed.
“It’s just this complete circle of finger-pointing that’s going on, and nobody’s taking responsibility for the issue,” Ottawa car dealer Kevin MacDonald told
CBC News.
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The news program producer launched an investigation looking into 200 vehicles currently for sale across the country. CBC found that about one-sixth of the cars had recalls that remain unfixed or open. The results mirror the findings of car history data archiver Carproof, which also said that one in six used vehicles in Canada has an open recall.
Currently, there are no penalties for dealerships that sell cars with an open recall. None of the provinces are requiring that a car with an open recall must be repaired before its registration. Safety or mechanical inspections also currently do not require open recalls to be fixed.
A bill is in the works by the federal government that would allow the transport minister to order recalls and impose fines for low rates of recall fixes.
According to
CBC News, safety-related recalls of passenger vehicles increased a whopping 74% over the past six years.
One explanation as to why many potentially defective cars are still on the road is that many owners are not aware of their automobile’s flaws. A report by Transport Canada submitted to the Office of the Auditor General last week revealed that manufacturers had difficulty identifying and contacting owners of recalled cars, particularly in the case of older cars that have been resold and have new owners.
Some owners of relatively new cars can also go unaware of recalls. In some cases, car owners are not being notified properly by manufacturers of the issues their vehicles might have. Even those who receive notifications from an automaker of a car recall are not guaranteed to heed the message.
“Sometimes they ignore the letters they receive, sometimes they move — they change residences, and they don’t provide a forwarding address,” commented Mark Nantais of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association.
Canadian law mandates that manufacturers must contact owners when there is a recall. The legislation also requires manufacturers to report the repair completion rates to Transport Canada.
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