We have 2 national car brands, but still no product recall law, why?

A car has on average, about 30,000 to 50,000 parts, depending on vehicle type. Despite a manufacturer's best effort, every now and then, some defective parts will inevitably slip through.

As cars get more complicated and consumer rights protection are strengthened in many parts of the world, it’s only natural for recalls to become increasingly common. As much as manufacturers try their best, there’s no such thing as a zero-defect manufacturer.

The nature of how mass production work and increasingly short lifecycles of consumer products mean that defective products are bound to slip pass even the tightest quality gates and find their way to the marketplace.

Last year alone, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MLIT), which oversees vehicle recalls there saw 419 recalls reported for 1,643 vehicle models. In USA, the NHTSA oversees close to 1,000 recalls on average annually, most of it are for non-safety related items and are termed as voluntary recalls, as opposed to mandatory recalls.

No car is immune to recalls, not even the most expensive Rolls-Royce, so don't get unnecessarily alarmed when you receive a recall notice.

Most of the time, recalls are for issues so banal than unless you’re an affected owner, few will find it worth their time to discuss about it. What matters is how these defects are corrected.

However every once in a while, you will get something really serious. Toyota/Lexus’ unintended acceleration, Takata airbags for nearly every other American/German/Japanese brand, and most recently - fuel pumps by Denso.

In Malaysia, Toyota and Honda have since announced recalls to replace the defective fuel pumps. Both companies have said that the defect could cause a vehicle to lose power or stall. Toyota didn't even try to downplay the severity of the defect, stating very clearly "This may result the vehicle to stall and unable to start. This scenario could increase the risk of a crash while driving at higher speed."

Honda’s and Toyota’s recall notice read rather similar to announcements by Japan's MLIT, which reads:

“In the fuel pump impeller, due to an improper injection molding process, the resin density of some impellers may be low and they deform by absorption of excessive fuel. If this were to occur, the impeller may interfere with the fuel pump body and fuel pump becomes inoperative, and in the worst case, resulting in engine stall while driving.”

Earlier last month, Perodua too carried out a recall to replace the same defective fuel pump for the Perodua Myvi, but unlike Honda and Toyota, it chose to do it quietly, notifying owners via snail mail rather than making a public announcement.

The letter to owners doesn’t say anything about cause and dangers of the defect, if left unchecked.

Perodua told paultan.org that it chose to carry out the recall quietly because:

1. The defect affects higher mileage cars more than others

2. It wants to avoid unnecessary panic and owners overwhelming its service centres, which will further complicate physical distance rules currently in place

Point #2 is a reasonable explanation, Point #1 is questionable, unless the fuel pump used by Perodua fails in a very different manner from the same ones used by Toyota and Honda.

But we are not here to do a witch hunt. What matters here is that Perodua is acknowledging the defect and owners are being notified. To affected owners, that’s all that matters.

Remember that Perodua have in the past, issued public recall notices. In 2013, the company announced a massive recall for 74,000 cars to fix a defective electric power steering component for the Myvi. So perhaps the recent actions by Perodua is related to the unusual RMCO circumstances that our country is facing right now.

Instead, we want to aim our guns at the government. Haven’t we learn from Honda’s Takata airbag recall?

For all the talk about Malaysia being among the 15 countries in the world capable of developing and producing a car from scratch, there are actually very few laws to protect Malaysian car buyers against defective cars.

The irony is that we are a country that is about to setup a third national car company, but can’t implement basic traffic safety regulations, nevermind recall laws.

Apart from going to the Tribunal for Consumer Claims Malaysia, there are very little avenues for consumers to seek redress if they have purchased a defective car.

My colleague Hezeri Samsuri, Managing Editor of Careta.my have long championed for the need to introduce recall monitoring systems and regulations. Car companies are at the end of the day, profit-driven entities. We cannot rely on their goodwill and believe that they will always be transparent about defects and carry out recalls accordingly.

“Actually we do have a recall monitoring system, but it’s rather lax. All recalls are monitored by JPJ, but car companies are not obligated to report it to JPJ. Also, JPJ doesn’t do anything apart from recording it,” said Hezeri.

“I have been telling the government that we need a recall and lemon law for the past ten years. We have two national cars and no recall law? That’s pretty funny but it shows how consumerism is still a new thing here,” said Hezeri, who added that the responsibility should be parked under Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, with the help of MARii.

Currently, most recall announcements in Malaysia are made by Japanese manufacturers - Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. Only these three brands have a dedicated section on their website detailing all their recalls, not just for Takata airbag-related ones.

However you will almost never hear German brands here announcing a recall, which implies it they are either hiding the defects, addressing it on a case by case basis, or quietly doing corrective work only when an affected car comes in for its routine maintenance. Volkswagen's recent DSG recall is the exemption. 

As car population increase in Malaysia, it’s necessary for recall laws to be introduced. In Japan, recall monitoring systems were introduced just three years after mass-market cars like the Toyota Corolla and Nissan Sunny hit the market in 1966, sparking the first wave of motorization.

Japanese vehicle recall laws were drafted in response to an explosive editorial by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper on 1-July 1969 titled, “Why Are Japanese Carmakers Hiding Defects? - U.S. Newspapers Criticize Nissan, Toyota"

To hold off overbearing rules being laid upon them, Japanese manufacturers took the lead to establish a voluntary recall monitoring system together with JAMA (Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association), giving regular updates to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT), the ministry that oversees motor vehicle regulations. 

The system was introduced in August 1969, just three months after the newspaper’s highly critical editorial was published.

In 1995, the previous voluntary-based recall monitoring system was tightened and penalties were introduced. It was this very same law that got Mitsubishi Motors in trouble in the ‘90s for hiding defects.

In the US, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was established in 1966 to monitors recalls and penalties for hiding recalls were introduced in 2003.

Enacting a robust recall monitoring system was an unfinished business for previous Transport Minister Anthony Loke, before he was booted out following the change in government mid-term.

At the height of Honda’s Takata airbag recall, Anthony Loke implemented a system where affected Honda vehicles whose defective airbags have not been replaced, will not be able to renew their road tax.

Despite making so many announcements on all media channels, it was still not possible to reach every owner. Sending letters to owners is fine, but who is checking if the letters reach the intended recipient?

The nature of manufacturers as private entities also mean that they will try to downplay the severity of the defect as much as possible. Yes Honda and Toyota have proven to be rather on point with their recalls but what about the rest? Which is why the government needs to step in to keep things in check.

Recall/lemon car laws should cover not just new cars, but also reconditioned cars, but that's opening another can of worms. As it is, reconditioned cars in Malaysia don't have to undergo Vehicle Type Approval (VTA) before they are sold here. 

Elsewhere, parallel imported reconditioned cars are actually encouraged by governments, especially in Singapore, Australia, and even China. The reason? It promotes healthy competition and keeps prices of new cars in check. The caveat? Parallel imported cars must undergo the same VTA process as new cars, complying with all the necessary safety/emission standards and importers will need to bear the certification cost. 

But who in the cabinet will want to push this motion through? Hezeri lamented that the reason why recall and 'lemon' car laws don’t exist here is because no government ministry will want to have this additional job added to their portfolio. As such, consumers will have to continue to depend on the goodwill of car companies.