Did you know that the used car you bought may include some safety-related defects that the dealer didn’t tell you about? It’s a classic example of caveat emptor, as a new study from Carfax claims that about 20 percent of all vehicles in the U.S. were previously recalled, but weren’t repaired as required.
All in all, there are over 46 million vehicles in the U.S. that were previously recalled but not repaired, and according to the Carfax study, some of these issues may even be dangerous enough to cause a collision, or even injure or kill a driver or passenger. About five million of these vehicles were sold to new owners, the study added. And it all happens to be legal, as there are no laws that mandate dealerships to repair vehicles prior to selling them, and these dealerships aren’t obligated to tell customers that the vehicle they’re buying had previously been recalled, or been scheduled for recall.
Carfax used car specialist Chris Basso commented that this is a “very major safety problem,” noting that when recalled vehicles aren’t fixed, the issues “compounds over the years,” thus making it likelier for defective parts to ultimately fail or cause a significant safety concern. But it appears that the Obama administration is aware of these concerns, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is lobbying for laws that require dealers to repair recalled cars and trucks before they are sold.