Canada on track for another record year of recalls

HALIFAX – Canada is looking at another record year of recalls.

“We are seeing for 2015, based on the trends, that we are once again going to surpass that record level,” said Leif Stephanson, Transport Canada Motor Vehicle Regulation Enforcement director in Ottawa over Skype.

In 2014, 592 recalls were issued for 8,188,636 vehicles, tires, and child car seats in the country; recalls jumped by 35 per cent compared to the prior five-year average.

Stephanson blamed that on having more drivers (and cars) on the road, increasingly complex cars, and stricter safety standards.

Dave Giles, a instructor in the transportation department at Nova Scotia Community College in Dartmouth, N.S., said it’s important for people to take recalls seriously.

“There could be incidents where a vehicle could become disabled, involved in a collision, could result in a safety component not operating to the standards set,” he said.

Manufacturers are required to inform vehicle owners within 60 days of becoming aware of a safety problem. Giles said it can be hard for manufacturers to do so since many cars get resold.

Carfax has a free app called myCARFAX that shows recall history on cars using licence plate identifiers.

Christopher Basso, public relations manager for the company, said one in five vehicles in Nova Scotia have an unfixed recall; the highest percentage of those cars are S.U.V.s and minivans.

Stephanson said that recall completion rates can, in some cases, fall below 75 per cent.