COLORADO SPRINGS — Right now more than 50 million vehicles on the roads across the country are being driven with an open safety recall or issue that needs to be repaired by the manufacturer. News5 takes a deep dive into this CARFAX study to find what these issues look like in our state and specifically in southern Colorado.
It’s a growing safety issue on our roads in Colorado, people driving cars with recalls that haven’t been fixed. Last year Colorado ranked 21st nationwide, but an updated study from CARFAX has our state up to 19th now despite the national number of open recalls going down about 6%.
According to CARFAX, Colorado has more than 907,000 vehicles on the road with an open recall, which by their research is more than 18% of the vehicles on the road in our state. Between Colorado Springs and Pueblo CARFAX believes there are at least 153,000 vehicles with recalls that haven’t been fixed.
”That’s concerning because these are safety issues. These are known safety issues that the manufacturer and the government have teamed up to come out and say hey there is something wrong and we need to fix it. It’s free to take it in and get it repaired, but people just aren’t taking that step to get the recalls closed,” said CARFAX Spokesperson Emilie Voss.
With supply chain issues it’s been reported that many repair shops have struggled to get parts in for various repairs, but in this case CARFAX says manufacturers have made repairing recalls a point of emphasis to make sure these free repairs can happen right away.
”The manufacturers do prioritize getting these recalls fixed because these are known safety issues, they prioritize getting the parts to the shops,” said Voss.
In many cases the value of used cars has skyrocketed in the last year due to inventory issues and microchip shortages, but when a used car has an open safety recall it will often negatively impact the value.
”Anybody looking or shopping for a used car should be checking for open recalls. I can’t stress this enough. There is a federal law in place that prohibits a new car from being sold with an open recall, but there’s nothing to prevent a used car being sold with an open recall,” said Voss.
The experts say it’s a combination of drivers who don’t even know their vehicle has an open recall and those who just haven’t taken the time to get the issue repaired, fueling the number of unaddressed open recalls year after year.
”When you stop at the next stoplight and you look around it’s likely you’ll see a few cars and one of them has an open recall currently on it that needs to be taken care of,” said Voss.
Whether you’re in the market for a used car, or just want to see if your vehicle has an open recall you didn’t know about or may have missed, there are tools online that can help you get that information.
Go toNHTSA.gov/Recalls to check your VIN
Sign up to get email alerts about future safety recalls, or download NHTSA's SaferCar app
Owners can check whether their vehicle has an open recall for free at CARFAX or view a state map by visiting: www.carfax.com/recall/
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