Hyundai India recalls 2437 Santa Fés
Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) has voluntarily recalled 2437 units of the Santa Fe manufactured between June 26, 2011 and September 26, 2013 to replace the stop lamp switch. Hyundai India, in a statement on Saturday said the recall is due to a potential malfunction of the switch. The switch is mounted near the brake-pedal mechanism and activated when the pedal is depressed and released. Hyundai is initiating a service campaign to address the issue and the owners of the vehicles will be notified in a phased manner to bring in their vehicles in for replacing the part. The company will replace the faulty part free-of-cost.
Recalls have become more frequent in the industry after the adoption of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) Voluntary Recall Code in July 2012. Earlier this month, Honda Cars India Ltd. recalled 31,226 units in the Brio hatchback and the Amaze sedan to scrutinize the proportioning valve in the braking system. Maruti Suzuki, the biggest carmaker in the country recalled 1,03,311 units of Ertiga, Swift and DZire to replace faulty fuel filler neck last month. Toyota Kirloskar Motor recalled nearly 45,000 units of the Innova earlier this year to repair a defect in the steering column. In one of the biggest recalls in the country, General Motors last year recalled 1.14 lakh units of the Tavera to address emissions and specifications issues.
The SIAM’s Voluntary Recall code of 2012 allows manufacturers to address potential issues that exist in a motor vehicle due to manufacturing defect, and take remedial actions. The affected vehicles shall be covered under safety recall for a period of seven years. The framework also specifies that the reported vehicle will be rectified by the manufacturer through its dealers at no cost to the customer. Though recalls rectify issues free-of-cost to the customers, repeated recalls raise concerns about the safety of the vehicles sold in India. Considering that this voluntary code went into effect as late as 2012, one wonders just how many potentially hazardous issues we’ve lived with in our vehicles thus far.
