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Car makers in India form alliance, set up car recall policy

Toyota recalled Toyota Etios sedan and Tata recalled Tata Nano in December 2011, Honda recalled Honda City sedan in September 2011 and there are over a dozen recalls in India since January 2008. But India has no such recall policy available and there is no such authority that could trigger the recall. Whereas cars in foreign countries are recalled even for a minor fault and there are authorities that constantly monitor car accidents and if there is a pattern visible in car crashes, it intimates the car companies to declare a recall and replace the defective parts free of cost. India still has not such mechanism for defective cars that have some engineering defect. However, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has taken an initiative to declare any defect in cars in India on their own.

It is believed that in the absence of any code for recall, car makers in India could have been avoiding recalls even after spotting any defect but most of the vital engineering defects were catered to seriously and replacements were done. But officially car makers in India are under no compulsion to recall such defective cars. Also, unlike, other countries there are no mechanism to put penalties on car makers for producing and selling such defective cars.

Meanwhile, taking an initiative on their own, car makers in India including Maruti, Hyundai, Mahindra, Toyota, Tata Motors and others have all decided to frame a joint recall policy and following which these car makers will be disclosing any defect in their cars to the public and they will declare a recall. This policy will be implemented from July 1 and following which all defects in cars manufactured by these car makers will be made public and a recall will then be declared. Meanwhile the most recent recall worldwide was the recall of Chevrolet Cruze sedan when GM recalled 4.13 lakh cars in US, Canada and Israel.