I personally don’t have an Autopian Answer to today’s Autopian Ask, but that’s OK. I have received recall notices, mind you, but they were so minor that I either fixed the thing myself (I believe one was “loose battery strap”) or I just decided I wasn’t worried about whatever the recall was for. I admit, the bar I set for when to worry is pretty high; if a recall says my car might catch on fire, but it sounds like it will ignite slowly, I’m probably gonna put that off way too long.
Let’s check in with the gang …
The Bishop
I just got another recall notice!
When I take the car in, they always find “other stuff.”
So I never leave for less than around $1500 for the “free repair.”
Mercedes
You people bring your cars in for recalls?
My 2016 Smart has a recall because the headlights have a lateral adjustment screw that’s non-compliant with FMVSS. The recall blocks off the screw so the headlight cannot be adjusted laterally.
Pfft, I’m not deleting a feature from my car!
Matt
My not-so-beloved Forester had to be recalled three times, including for a battery recall, the sunsetting of 3G, and something to do with the brake pedal. All I remember is they left an extra bolt in the footwell, and I had to text Bozi to double-check that I didn’t need that bolt. [Ed note: Yeah, but free bolt! – Pete]
Antti
I’ve only ever had recalls done on cheap beater cars. Takata airbag on my 1.5-liter JDM Impreza and the ignition switch on the Demio
On both counts, it was hilarious to take old, 1000-1500 euro cars in for recall work.
Brian
I actually brought my M5 in to get the air conditioning fixed in like 2017, expecting to have to go without a car. But they were like, “Oh your car has a recall we need to do, here’s a free X3 for a week.”
Which was nice.
Stephen Walter Gossin
Upon receiving the Takata Airbag recall notice for my ’04 Durango in the mail a few years back, I immediately knew I had to take action. I had been following the international, wide-spanning effects and reach of the issue with those problematic (and deadly) airbag units for years as a voracious consumer of automotive media. I didn’t want to roll the dice with potentially having shrapnel launched into my face while driving.
Taking the car to the local Dodge dealer was actually wicked simple and easy. I dropped it off after work and placed the keys in the late-hours Dropbox. The next afternoon, I got a call back from the service advisor inviting me to come get the truck. It only cost me a nominal amount of time and effort to gain a massive amount of peace of mind.
Your turn:
I bought a 2019 Mazda3 hatch right after they came out. After a few months and 5k miles, the automatic emergency braking erroneously activated on 95 and scared the crap out of me. I took it to the dealer and they said there was a pending recall for this issue but they didn’t have the software to fix the issue. So it sat there for around a month before the recall could be performed. On the way home from the dealer, it applied the brakes again so I turned around and dropped it off a second time.
Shortly after that I began the lemon law process and the car was ultimately repurchased after visiting the dealer two more times for the same issue.
I had the recall for the main positive cable issue on that generation of 1s and 3s done by what had been the best dealer in town until ownership changed. After the part finally came in they gave me a loaner, etc., etc., I got the car back a couple days later IIRC, and all was OK for a while. I took it in later for some warranty work. Said dealer lost my car after the SA quit/was fired over the holidays; I finally found it for them in the literal middle of their shop. I never went back, going to a different dealer do the Takata recall for which parts were on order forever, the high pressure full pump recall, and a ton of reflashes for the first year double clutch transmission on my 135i (they finally got it right) that Dealer #1 had claimed was just fine.
Well, over the years my indie shop and I pulled out a lot of hair over what was first a parasitic drain and then an intermittent bricking that would resolve itself seemingly by magic. Finally, it bricked and stayed bricked, and after pulling half of the interior in order to look at every part of the electrical system between the battery and junction boxes we found that the B+ main battery cable recall was never performed by Dealer #1.
I came to say: your experience will vary greatly depending on the attitude of your dealership. A good shop will yield a good experience, so if your guys screw up your recall service, consider ditching them before they screw up everything else.
[I too had a dealership lose a car after having it for months and failing to service it. They insisted it wasn’t there, that we’d already picked it up, any excuse. I finally got it back after printing satellite view of their yard and circling my car. Ugh!]
Every time there is a recall I bring them in, because they usually run a whole vehicle diagnosis (At least my local Chevy dealer) and apply other fixes that I wasn’t even aware. I like to keep my cars updated like my phone.
Two domestic OEM 2025 MY vehicles that recently had 3 recalls between them. All software related. Both dealers sent dealer / OEM branded mobile repair trucks to my driveway to take care of the recalls (yea – I transacted both vehicles from different stores of the same manufacturer). Very convenient not having to take the vehicles in, wait however long, etc. However, why these module updates cannot be done OTA is a huge missed opportunity (not to mention a huge cost saving)…perhaps in the future for some OE’s? Curious to know how many recalls these days are software vs. mechanical tho…
One recall on my wife’s Bolt. Chevy sent a tech and did it in our garage. One recall on my Maverick. Ford did a software update while it was in for an oil change.
Easy peasy, both.
Yep, I’ve done recalls several times. A couple of Takata airbag recalls, a slew of “your vehicle may catch fire” Jeep recalls, and then the Explorer Firestone recall (which I didn’t get because I had already worn out and replaced the tires on my Explorer with Goodyear’s).
I frequently do not process recalls on my vehicles… “Now where did I park?”
I have a Ford. Of course I’ve taken it in for recalls (seven, I think). When it had to stay there, they leant me a car and I picked it up the next day. The others have been software fixes, so I go through the “quick lane” and usually wait less than an hour and they wash it before giving it back to me.
Three separate vehicles with Takata airbag recalls. First Honda Civic was pretty painless, drop it off on the way to work, pick it up by the end of the day. Second Honda Civic they did the airbag fix, but then called saying it wouldn’t start, even though I mentioned when dropping it off that it could take a few seconds of cranking to start. Went to pick it up, started, no problem. The Toyota Sienna turned out to be slightly more of a pain as we’d cleared the passenger side of our usual collection of “stuff” but the techs were miffed because it turns out you have to disassemble the entire dash to do the airbag fix. So they just tossed the maps,etc.sitting around to the middle of the minivan. Had to do the long overdue tidying then. The driver’s side carpet fix was pretty much a non-event. So mostly boring and not too much hassle.
Takata recall in my Subaru resulted in a cracked dash after the work was done.
Took it up all the way to regional rep, the best they would do is me paying $100 for them to replace it with a new one. Which I did.
Recently I got pulled over and found out that I’m now missing the VIN under the windshield… I guess it was my fault for not noticing it for 5 years.
Only time I’ve had to get recall work done was on my Sonic for a recall where if you sat in the car for longer than 10 minutes with the key in the ignition and opened the door afterwards, the ignition chime might not sound after opening the door. They somehow messed up re-flashing the head unit to where my backup camera wouldn’t work, but they were able to quickly fix it the next day and I didn’t have any issues with it afterwards. Pretty standard dealership experience, nothing else really notable to add.
’19 Chevy Bolt battery recall. Took a few days, but went smoothly and I got a brand new battery with 10% more capacity than OEM.
Had to take our 2009 Fit in for its VTEC spring recall. I skipped the local dealer to take it to a more reputable dealer further away. Later had to get a loaner for a few months back during the Takata airbag recall madness. That was interesting trying Enterprise’s local fleet for a few months on Honda’s dime.
An ancient 2004 Mazda3 that had a recall for the emblem on the airbag/horn pad (something about it can injure the driver if the airbag goes off). In and out within three hours. The car now has a shinier, scratch-free (and safer) Mazda logo.
I drive a jeep wrangler, so yes I did and I waited until I got other stuff. I tried to get the plugs done when they were doing the recall on the intake, they never did, I called them on it and they said the did after and I found out much later they never did the plug change. I do not go back to that dealership.
As a Chrysler Pacifica owner, I normally just get the recall work done whenever I get the oil changed at the dealership. Don’t think it ever didn’t have a recall to work on in 5 years of ownership. Generally it goes fine and with no upcharges.
I’ve had a Takata air bag recall, and a Honda fuel pump replaced under recall. Both of these only cost me some time out of my day. Since both of these recalls could be a real PITA if they were to fail, I wasn’t going to take the chance.
Brought the ’04 Cayenne into the dealer for a recall on the headlight adjusters a couple of years ago. Some of the techs there looked like they weren’t born yet in ’04, and had probably never worked on one. Even the service advisor said they couldn’t remember the last time anyone had brought a 1st gen Cayenne in for service. Work was perfectly fine and done quickly.
For the next year I got regular emails from the service advisor stating that the car was due for servicing and asking why I wasn’t bringing it back in. I finally replied that I either do the work myself or have an independent mechanic if needed. No emails since, except for the marketing ones asking if I want to lease a Macan for $1,200/mo.
I had an ’81 Suburu GL that was front wheel drive only, and there was a recall for the rear suspension frame, as they used a U channel turned up, with the U open to all the crap that could, and did fill it up, causing rust to break it. Mine had done that, with the rear of the car riding on the bumpers. I didn’t tell them that I had been wiring houses out of the trunk of my car, and always carried around many hundreds of pounds of tools and materials. And of course, it looked nearly spotless in the trunk when I took it in. Not a bad free fix!
My m240 had multiple software update recalls. For some reason those took hours. Still not sure what the updates changed.
Being a fleet manager, I not only have to bring vehicles in for recalls, but sometimes I have to bring in 30 vehicles for the same recalls, and since we’re largely a Ford shop, there’s a LOT of recalls.
Currently I have several 2017 Transit 350 vans going through the recall procedure for the guibo at the front of the driveshaft, they’re FINALLY just eliminating it and using a conventional driveshaft like the 2018-up vans. First they recalled the vans and installed a slightly thicker guibo, which didn’t fix the issue, then they decided to just go with the newer shaft. We’ve probably installed 50 guibos ourselves while waiting for the recall, they don’t hold up to the 3.5 Ecoboost and our maniacal drivers.
‘Guibo’ is a new word for me.
It instills a certain sense of PTSD in BMW owners.
The Ford unit looks exactly like the BMW units I used to change at my diff shop in the 90’s, it’s deja vu all over again, to quote Yogi Berra.
I think this is the first and possibly last time I’ve every typed it out, looks worrisomely like an ethnic slur. Ford chickens out and calls them “rubber couplers”.
I’ve done quite a few. Most of them were between two new Jeeps, and most of those on the Grand Cherokee 4XE! Those were awful because they were so frequent and half the time they didn’t even know what to do. Had a suspension recall I got told come back in 6 months and we might have the parts. Another dealer an hour away did it on the spot when I swung in. Took 20 minutes.
JL Wrangler Rubicon axle weld one was easy, I think I spent more of the day waiting for their shuttle to pick me up than they spent on the repair.
Have brought Stinger in for recall repairs twice. Cost me $0 both times. Reasonably good experience, but…halo car, I’m sure I got the most kid glove treatment Kia could muster.
The turbo oil feed did in fact degrade and leak on mine. Guy who did the repair said I narrowly avoided an engine fire.
Yes. My 2015 Fit was recalled for an ignition coil issue. Mine was fine. Also for an inner rear door issue. Ditto: fine.
I hope you get more exciting comments.
Edit: While not a recall, my very early Fit had its bumper upgraded because the result from the overlap test was less than what Honda expected.. I thought that was cool.
I haven’t ever owned a car new enough to be subject to an active recall, until now – my 2015 Mazda 3 has a recall for the backup camera, of all things. I have yet to take it in.
I took my 2016 in for that, even though they’d fixed a camera problem in 2020. I’m thinking of selling and thought it was better to have the recall off the CarFax. I got a free but not very thorough car wash