Carmudi Nigeria shares insight on the risks of purchasing recalled cars and gives advice on what to do when your car is recalled.
On the 26th of September, Ford announced a major recall of 850,000 vehicles from model years 2013 and 2014 due to a problem with the "restraints control module."

According to Ford, a short circuit could develop in the module, causing the airbag warning light to illuminate. In more severe cases, dependent on where the short develops, the airbags and seatbelt pre-tensioners may not work in the event of an accident. The problems can be more wide-ranging than that, too, as systems that rely on information from the control module, such as the stability control can be affected. Source: Wall Street Journal

Among the Ford brands, Ford Explorer, Escape and Ford Edge are popular Nigeria. Although only the Escape crossovers 2013/2014 are among the brands recalled by the automaker other brands like the Fusion Sedans and C-Hybirds may find their way into Nigeria.
This year also Japanese car manufacturer Toyota recalled an additional 650,000 cars Corolla, Camry Yaris and Vios.- all in Japan – in addition to those recalled last year over a defect in passenger airbags. The additional recall placed the number of the all cars recalled just over 2.79 million.
Sometimes due to ignorance or over sight many of such cars have made its way into the African auto market and eventually the Nigeria market before the recall and even after it?

It was documented that Toyota Hiace YH3 buses were recalled in Australia as a result of fire in 1990 and recently in 2012. The 1990 safety recall closed August 26, 2010, the period Nigeria started recording high Toyota Hiace crashes involving fire incidents giving proof that most of these recalled cars make their way to Nigeria.

This is an issue because just last year, the Federal Road Safety Corps again raised alarm over the high rate of Toyota related crashed and accidents and even went as far as writing to the Managing Director, Toyota Nigeria calling his attention to the high rate of crashes and fires involving Toyota automobiles. He said the study indicated that road traffic crashes involving buses had been on the increase since 2007 and that available data showed an average yearly increase of 126 crashes involving Toyota Hiace buses, representing 48 per cent of the total number of buses involved in accidents.

While that of Austria might be able to dissuade the public from purchasing the brand affected, the defect of the Japanese model may be overlooked by buyers as the defective part which "could cause the airbag inflator to rupture and deploy the airbag abnormally in a crash" may come across as ‘not important’.But in a situation of crash, the airbags are a very important component of the car when it comes to surviving a car crash.

To avoid been stuck with a car which has been recalled it is important to do your research before you buy any car. Your research should include the possible defect, general problem of the car like transmitting issues, battery durability, electrical faults etc. It also important to have an idea of the fuel consumption of the car and how stable the car’s center of gravity is.
But if you are unlucky to buy a car that gets recalled, don’t panic. Just follow the following steps.
Understand the reason behind the recall of your car.

Inform your car dealer and take the car back to the dealership where you bought it or the nearest show room.
Complete all the necessary paper work and make sure all your car documents are complete because you have to hand this over too.
Do not sell your recalled car to any person as it may end up endangering the life of the driver and the public.

About Carmudi Nigeria
Carmudi Nigeria is Nigeria’s number one premium online market place it deals with New, used and Nigerian used cars. Carmudi.com.ng they are able to sit in the convenience of their homes or offices and search through thousands of new, used and Nigerian used vehicles and buy cars in Nigeria they are no longer restricted to cars in their immediate environment and the dealers they know as we have taken time to verify and ok all dealers and sellers on our site all in a bid to build trust which is lacked amongst buyers and sellers.

Read more about cars on www.carmudi.com.ng/journal

Sorry but this is a very naive post, every car manufacturer has recalls, there is almost no car you buy that will not have a recall at some point or another. What you should do in that event is just go to the dealership of the car in question and get it fixed. For example if you have a Toyota Camry that was recalled take it to toyota and they can fix the service item for you.

Also to say that hiace buses made up 48 percent of bus crashes in Nigeria doesn't tell the whole story because the hiace is the bus of choice for the vast majority of transportation companies. I dare say up to 90% of them use hiace buses, so if only 48% of the crashes are involving the Hiace then they are outperforming their competition by a very wide margin.