Personal Injury Law

Recent Wave of Product Recalls Strikes Embattled Car Industry

By guest-writer

A recent spate of car recalls has left consumers edgy and car companies nervous about potential personal injury lawsuits. The wave of recalls has affected a number of prominent car makers, as evidenced by stories coming out this week.

First, Toyota announced this week that it was recalling more than 740,000 cars due to a potential brake fluid leak. Sources indicate that the recall includes Avalon, Highlander, and Lexus model years ranging from 2004 to 2006.

Fortunately, there have been no reported accidents or injuries caused as a result of the potential brake fluid problems. The company’s extreme caution is partially attributable to the controversy stemming from faulty brakes that led to several personal injury lawsuits earlier this year.

Toyota also announced that the first sign of potential brake fluid troubles is the illumination of the brake warning light. If this occurs, Toyota recommends contacting your local dealer for a free repair that will take roughly two hours.

Experts estimate that the recall will cost Toyota roughly $125 million.

In other recall news, Honda recently recalled 528,000 cars after mechanics discovered potential problems with a master brake cylinder seal. Most of the recalled cars are Odyssey minivans, although a few Acura RL sedans have also been involved in the recall.

Surprisingly, the supplier of the faulty seals also supplied the faulty mechanisms that led to the Toyota recall.

In order to fix the issue, Honda said it has changed the way its suppliers change the faulty seal. Fortunately for Honda, no car accident lawsuit has been filed yet due to the problem.

Finally, Ford recently issued a recall for a host of vehicles having problems with defective cruise control disconnect switches. According to reports, the defective switches could potentially cause electrical fires, even when the car is turned off.

As a result of the potential for fires, Ford recalled more than 17 million vehicles. The recall, however, has some critics worried that it was not announced loudly enough, as millions of cars remain unrepaired.

According to industry experts, proper publicity for car recalls is a significant challenge. Moreover, the fact that many cars are now on their second and third owners further heightens the difficulty carmakers have in contacting the current owner.

Further, even if the car companies are able to successfully contact car owners, they cannot force them to take their cars in for repair. Despite the free repairs offered during most recalls, there is still a great deal of inertia in getting recalled cars to the shop for repair.

Unfortunately, manufacturing flaws in cars often create accidents. If you have suffered an injury due to an accident or your car has been harmed after a recall was issued, contact a personal injury attorney today to learn more about your legal rights.

Full post as published by The Injury Blog on October 26, 2010 (boomark / email).