Vehicle recalls blamed on shoddy quality control, growing customer awareness

The 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee exhibited at a car dealership in New Jersey. Fiat Chrysler has recalled 1.4 million vehicles in the United States.Its recall in China is likely in the pipeline. [Photo/Agencies]]

Automakers in China recalled many more vehicles in the first half of 2015 than they did in the same period a year earlier, according to the country's top quality watchdog.

By June, 124 recalls had been announced, involving 2.94 million vehicles, a 155 percent rise from the first half of 2014, said Li Jing, spokeswoman for the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, at a news conference on July 28.

Of those, 55 recalls of 1.87 million vehicles were made after investigations by the Administration, accounting for 64 percent of the total number, Li said.

In addition to strengthened supervision by the quality watchdog, another major cause for the many recalls was automakers' quality control systems, leading to problems such as faulty Takata airbags.

Statistics show that at least 2.16 million of the vehicle recalls announced or carried out in the first half of the year were due to the installation of containing airbags from the Japanese supplier.

The Chinese watchdog said Takata airbags run the risk of ejecting shell fragments when they deploy and inflate, or simply not inflating in a collision.

Takata airbags forced Guangqi Honda to announce recalls of 1.61 million City, Fit and Accord models in the first half of the year, putting the joint venture on top of the list of automakers by number of vehicles recalled.

It was followed by Tianjin FAW Toyota, who announced recalls of 380,000 Corolla and Vios models, and Dongfeng Nissan, with recalls of 168,000 Teana sedans, all due to the same airbag problems.

Worldwide, faulty Takata airbags have resulted in the recall of at least 10 million vehicles, according to Chinese reports.

Several other automakers, including Guangqi Fiat, Beijing Benz and Changan Ford announced or carried out recalls of at least 100,000 vehicles each because of faulty fuel pumps, engine compartments and steering systems.

John Zeng, managing director at consultancy LMC Automotive, said this has much to do with Chinese customers' growing awareness of quality.

"Customers are getting younger and younger. They know more about cars and they want to defend their rights," Zeng said.

He said those who find problems with their vehicles could complain to the quality watchdog, which would start an investigation when it receives a certain number of complaints about the same problem.

Zeng said such a channel helps solve quality problems but added that it would be better if China had a separate agency dedicated to car quality supervision, such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the United States as "China's top quality watchdog has too many industries under its jurisdiction".