A recall means the maker has admitted something on your car can hurt someone, and has agreed to put it right at their expense. It is not a fault you caused, it is not a bill, and it does not expire the way a warranty does. What follows is what to do about it, in the order that matters.
1. First, find out whether it is the urgent kind
Most recalls can wait until a service appointment. A small number cannot. Some notices tell owners to stop driving immediately, and some say to park away from buildings because the risk is fire while the car is switched off.
We keep the list of the ones that say that: the recalls that say stop driving. If your car is on it, that instruction came from the manufacturer, not from us, and it is worth acting on today.
If you do not yet know whether your car has an open recall, start at check your car.
2. The repair is free. It stays free.
A safety recall repair is paid for by the manufacturer. You should not be charged for parts, labour or diagnosis, and you do not need to have bought the car new, or bought it from that dealer, or serviced it there.
Two things worth knowing:
- In the United States, NHTSA lists safety recalls going back 15 years. Older campaigns may not appear in a lookup even though some manufacturers still honour them. If your car is older than that and you believe there was a recall, ask the manufacturer directly rather than assuming it lapsed.
- If you already paid for the repair yourself before the recall was announced, keep the receipt. Reimbursement is often available, and it is almost never offered unprompted.
3. If you bought the car used, nobody may have written to you
This is the most common way people miss a recall, and it is not their fault.
Manufacturers post recall letters to the address on the vehicle registration. When a car changes hands, that trail breaks. In most countries there is no requirement for a used-car seller to check for or fix an open recall before selling, and no mechanism that forwards the letter to whoever owns the car now. The letter goes to a previous owner, or to an old address, and nobody knows it went missing.
So the absence of a letter tells you nothing. Check the car itself: check your car.
4. When the dealer says there are no parts
This is common, and it is the point at which most people give up. A recall can be announced before the fix is ready: the manufacturer is required to notify owners of the danger, not to wait until the remedy exists.
What you can reasonably ask for:
- A written note of the date you asked. This is the single most useful thing you can do, and it costs nothing. It establishes that you did not delay.
- A courtesy or loaner car, if the recall means the vehicle is unsafe to drive. Dealers do not always volunteer this, and manufacturers can and do authorise it.
- A timeline in writing, and a call from the manufacturer rather than the dealer if the dealer cannot give one. The maker knows the parts schedule; the dealer often does not.
- Your costs, recorded. Keep receipts for hire cars, taxis, missed work. If a reimbursement scheme appears later, it will ask for exactly this.
We measured how long this takes in the aggregate: across every American recall since 2010, the median gap between the defect reaching the regulator and the letter reaching the driveway is 41 days, and the slowest tenth run to well over a year. The full study is here, broken down by manufacturer, so you can see what the company that made your car typically does.
5. When nothing happens at all
If the dealer will not schedule the work, or months pass with no contact, the escalation route is the safety authority rather than the dealer.
- United States: file a complaint with NHTSA. Complaints are public, and a pattern of them is how investigations start.
- Netherlands: the Netherlands vehicle register holds the Dutch register and can be contacted about an open recall on a registered vehicle.
- Elsewhere: your national road safety or type-approval authority. The manufacturer must answer to it in a way it does not have to answer to you.
We are a company that reads these registers, not a law firm. What you are owed varies by country and by the contract you signed, and if real money or a serious injury is involved you should talk to someone qualified in your jurisdiction rather than rely on a web page.
6. Do not rely on being told next time
Of the Dutch recall obligations we track, 17.2% have no repair recorded against them. That is a million vehicles carrying a defect the maker has already admitted to. Some were scrapped or exported. Many were simply never brought in, usually because nobody knew.
Two things reduce the chance of that being you:
- Keep your registration address current. It is the only address the manufacturer has.
- Watch the campaign itself. Our Recall Watch tells you if the wording of a recall you care about is changed after publication, which happens, and which no register keeps a record of.
What we are not telling you
We do not know whether your specific car is safe. We hold what the authorities published and what changed after they published it. A recall lookup that comes back clean means no open campaign is recorded against that vehicle today: not that the car is faultless, and not that a campaign will not be announced tomorrow.
Where we cannot verify something, we say so rather than fill the gap. That is the whole basis on which anything else here is worth reading.
Booking the repair
Call any authorised dealer of the make, not only the one that sold you the car. Give the recall number from the letter, or from NHTSA's look-up, and your VIN, and ask how long they need the car and whether the part is in stock. Under US law the work is free (49 U.S.C. 30120(a)); see who pays for the 15-year and tire exceptions and for getting money back if you paid before the recall.
If the dealer refuses or stalls
Ask for the refusal in writing and contact the maker's customer line with your VIN and the recall number. If the remedy is available and the car is not properly repaired within 60 days of you presenting it, US law treats that as a failure to repair in a reasonable time, and the maker must replace the car or refund it less depreciation (30120(c)). You can also report the problem to NHTSA. Details: how long a recall repair takes.
Rental cars, and selling a recalled car
Since 2015 US rental companies may not rent a car under recall until it is fixed, within 24 hours of the notice (48 for recalls of over 5,000 vehicles). Dealers notified of a recall may not sell the vehicle until it is fixed; private sellers can. See can you sell a car with an open recall?
More
- Do you get a new car if your car is recalled?
- How to report a car safety defect
- Car safety ratings explained
- The Takata airbag recall: is your car affected?
- Check recalls by number plate
- Service bulletin vs recall
- Child car seat recalls
- Tire recalls and the DOT code
- Buying used: the five-minute recall check
- The most recalled car brands
- The winter car safety checklist
US federal rules in plain words; not legal advice. Sources: 49 U.S.C. 30120, NHTSA.