The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is helping motorists identify whether the recalled car that they are driving has been repaired or not.
The new service is included in the SaferCar.gov website operated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to the federal agency, motorists can simply enter the vehicle identification number into the search box, to identify whether the car has been repaired after being included in a recall list. The unique identification number can be found on the dashboard near the windshield. You can also look out for the number on the driver’s side doorpost.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is also requiring that auto companies maintain and update the same data on their website. The data must be updated at least once every week. The National Traffic Safety Administration estimates that as many as one-third of all vehicles recalled in the United States are not repaired. That means that millions of cars every year that are included in the recall list for other defects are simply not repaired. Many of those cars continue to be driven in a possibly dangerous condition, until they are finally sold into a used car lot.
When new buyers purchase these cars, they may not even be aware that the car was earlier recalled for possibly serious defects. Similar dangers also exist when a person walks into a rental car service, and drives out with a recalled car that has not been subjected to a fix. The federal agency believe that much of the problem is linked to the fact that people move homes often, and therefore, may not receive recall notices sent by the federal agency. In other cases, motorists are simple too negligent to take their cars in for a fix.
