Why are millions of cars being recalled?

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Transport regulators around the world are forcing the automotive industry to fix faults in their cars, even if they are discovered years after the model rolled off the assembly line.

It seems the drive to use more complex technology in vehicles is undermining reliability.

We find out how tighter global scrutiny by road safety watchdogs is making manufacturers recall cars to repair them, even if the process is expensive for the industry.

Produced and presented by Russell Padmore

(Image: In May 2024 Tesla announced that the recall of over 125,000 of their vehicles in the US due to a possible seat belt warning system malfunction that can increase the risk of injury in a collision. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	The global car industry has skidded off course, with manufacturers recalling millions of vehicles to repair defects.
0:09.9	Many of them faults which are dangerous.
0:12.8	Hello, I'm Russell Padmore, with Business Daily examining why the world's automotive companies are building cars that often need to be fixed soon after rolling off
0:21.7	the assembly line.
0:22.9	Nowadays, many cars aren't really cars, they're computers on wheels.
0:29.0	They've got more software and potentially they've got more things to go wrong.
0:35.3	Safety regulators in the United States have put Ford and General Motors
0:39.0	under scrutiny, but they're not the only manufacturers being forced to recall cars there.
0:44.4	We've seen Toyota, Hyundai, Volkswagen and others be recalled in the recent future too,
0:49.7	so it's not just the US manufacturers. And as China's car manufacturers try to build sales abroad,
0:56.1	the challenge is to avoid recalls to repair safety problems
0:59.6	because that could undermine their brand.
1:01.8	You know, the Chinese cars are still very new internationally for their brand.
1:07.6	So the record rates are very important for them to keep it low. Inside China, there's
1:13.5	more instances. Business Daily, examining what's driving the automotive industry to build
1:19.8	faulty cars. I'm taking my car out of the garage and going for a drive here in London, hopefully a smooth journey in a city where traffic jams can be quite common.
1:40.6	My car is a classic 1987 Volvo 240. The Swedish manufacturer made these cars with the selling point of safety and little chance of a recall. The mechanics of this 1987 car are not digital. When I press the accelerator, I'm activating a cable directly connected to the fuel system, so no digital chips involved.
2:03.2	Plus the brakes and steering are also mechanically controlled by me, so no software to go wrong,
2:09.3	and therefore no safety recalls because of faulty technology.
2:13.2	In recent years, regulators have forced the world's automotive companies to recall millions of vehicles
2:18.2	after defects emerged, sometimes dangerous issues.
2:24.4	Recalls involving nearly 150,000 for vehicles.
	...

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