If you are the first person to drive a given vehicle off the lot, you should be able to feel relatively confident that you would know about any recall alerts that get issued on that automobile. The dealer and the auto company have your address, and assuming you update that address if you move, you should receive the proper notification when some type of defect is discovered.
Where things get a little more complicated is when an automobile has shuffled between various owners and car lots. It’s easy for recalls to get lost in the shuffle, and as new findings from Carfax show, the number of recalled vehicles that could be on the market is quite alarming.
A new report explores that company’s findings. Carfax claims that 3.5 million vehicles available from online sellers throughout 2013 had been recalled without undergoing the necessary repairs.
The problem is that there currently isn’t a mechanism in place to ensure that vehicle sellers have fixed issues that led to a recall. So whether you drop into a used car lot or simply buy from someone selling the vehicle privately, you can never be 100% positive that a vehicle doesn’t suffer from a defect.
Perhaps the best thing you can do to protect yourself and others is to conduct thorough research. Head online and figure out if the vehicle you’re thinking about has been recalled and, if so, if the proper repairs have taken place.