The Hindu Business Line : Car recalls happen in India too, but discreetly

THE next time you receive a call from your car dealer requesting you to drive down to the workshop for a free service, check out whether they plan to replace any component of your brand new car.

You might drive back thanking the dealer for replacing one of the components of your car free of charge, but they could be doing it under instructions from the car manufacturer itself.

Smell a rat? Your car could perhaps be part of a recall exercise conducted under the cover of a `free service week'.

Just as it happens in the US and other developed countries, car recalls happen in India too.

But unlike in the US, where companies themselves issue press statements in case of recalls, it is conducted in India in a closely guarded manner.

The car manufacturer might just be taking precautions to ensure that the particular car doesn't let the owner down, but the company would rather organise it through the dealership network than make a public announcement.

"The last time it happened in the country, it lead to lot more controversy than clarity," says Mr Deshnidhi Kasliwal, President of the Federation of Auto Dealers Association.

He adds that manufacturers are more cautious now and go about organising such recalls far more discreetly.

Sources in Hyundai India said that car manufacturers usually resort to organising service weeks to carry out such an exercise.

Mr Vinay Piparsania, Vice-President for Sales and Marketing, Ford India, told Business Line that in the case of Ford Escort, the company conducted a customer campaign for such a purpose.

However, Mr Balraj Bhanot, Director, Automobile Research Association of India (ARAI), clarified that the system of car recalls exists only in the US as car makers there do self-certification.

"In India, we inspect a vehicle picking it up randomly from the production line and conduct tests to examine whether the cars are safe and are roadworthy," he said.

"However, in case car manufacturers discover through customer feedback that a particular batch of cars has a problem, they carry out the exercise of repairing the defect or replacing the component on their own."

Mr Suhas Kadlaskar, Daimler Chrysler member of the board in India and head of Corporate Affairs and Finance, said that the company recently recalled some of the E-class Mercedes Benz cars to update the software.

But the defects could be much more than just fine-tuning a certain system.

For example, a particular car maker recently recalled nearly half a million cars in the US because of problems with a valve used to prevent fuel leakages, fearing that the leak could cause a fire in the event of a collision.

But all car makers defend their decision to recalls cars as they believe that they are being pro-active and hence their action should not be judged harshly.

Nevertheless, the next time you get a call from a dealer, don't forget to ask questions.