Tens of millions of U.S. motorists are driving vehicles that have been recalled because of potential safety issues but have not yet been brought to a dealership for repair, according to a new study.
Colorado-based Carfax, which sells automobile history reports, examined state vehicle registration data to determine that more than 46 million cars, trucks and SUVs in the United States have at least one outstanding recall that has not been addressed by a qualified repair service.
In New Jersey, nearly 1.3 million of 6.5 million registered vehicles have been recalled but not repaired, nearly one in five vehicles.
New Jersey ranked 11th in the country by number of vehicles with unresolved safety recalls, according to Carfax. The percentage of recalled-but-not-yet-repaired vehicles to total registered vehicles in New Jersey was 19.7 percent, the seventh-highest rate among the 50 states, Basso said.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced at the end of January the recall of more than 2.1 million Acura, Dodge, Jeep, Honda, Pontiac and Toyota vehicles for a defect that may cause air bags to deploy inadvertently. It is the second recall over the same issue as the fix used in the previous recall was not always effective. About 1 million Toyota and Honda vehicles involved in the new recall are also subject to a recall related to defective Takata air bags that can deploy with enough explosive force to cause injury or death.
Although dealers are prohibited by law from selling new automobiles that have an unresolved recall issue, used-car dealers, individual sellers of used cars and rental car companies have no such requirement. Nor are they required to disclose open recalls to customers.
Read More: http://www.northjersey.com/news/business/jersey-drivers-ignoring-vehicle-recalls-1.1279441
