I received a recall notice for my car (the second in two months!) so I immediately contacted my local dealer to make an appointment to have the “recall” part fixed, free of charge, per the instructions in the notice. According to the dealer, they would first have to look at the part number to see if the recall actually applied to my car. However, according to the official notice I received from the car manufacturer, the recall affects the make and model of my car.
Anyway, this got me wondering if car dealers are legally required to fix or replace parts associated with a recall notice. There is not much in it for them from a financial perspective. If it was required under law, one would think they would just fix it and not insist on looking at it first. I understand the need to assess the repairs, but in the end, are they legally bound to replace or fix the part(s) in accordance with a recall notice?
I don’t know about the law, but they are required under their dealership agreement with the auto manufacturer to take care of all recalls, as well as warranty work.
It doesn’t cost the dealer anything, since all parts and labor involved are reimbursed by the manufacturer.
Well, the dealer does have a vested interest in making sure your car is a correct candidate for repair. They don’t do the work for free; they’re paid by the manufacturer to do the repair. To claim reimbursement, they need to provide the VIN and other data to the manufacturer. Despite being paid less than the list rate for their labor, it’s still profitable to all but the worst-managed dealerships.
So, they only get reimbursed for the parts that are affected. They only get a fixed amount for labor. They only get these two if it’s an affected car. So, yeah, they have an interest in double-checking. As per legal requirements, they’re probably under no obligation per se. They can choose not to do business with you for just about any reason. However, they do want to make money. Additionally, their contract with the manufacturer in all likelihood does force their hand. But again, only on affected vehicles.
Your particular car may not have been affected. Example: I drive a 1998 Volvo S70 built sometime after August of that year. Its timing belt tensioner is hydraulic. If it had been built in July or earlier, its timing belt tensioner would have been mechanical and needed to be replaced.
So, yes, it’s definitely in their best interest to check.
The likely explanation for this part of your post:
A safety recall is often due to premature failures in some small part in your vehicle. And the manufacturer may have purchased batches of that part from various suppliers, and only the ones from company A are defective. But the auto company did not keep records on which batch from which supplier was used specific vehicles – the parts were all supposed to be the same, anyway. And keeping records that detailed on each car would be a lot of extra work.
So all the auto company knows is that some of this model of car used the defective part from company A. So they send recall notices to all owners, and send instructions to their dealers on how to recognize the defective part. When owners bring their car in, the mechanic can look and see if they have a defective one that needs replacing or not.
