Maruti Suzuki recalls 40,618 units of WagonR

Maruti Suzuki will recall 40,618 units of its small car WagonR to rectify a possible issue of fuel hose fouling with metal clamp, reflecting yet another instance of growing recalls over the last few years. The recall campaign is for the vehicles fitted with 1-litre engine and manufactured between November 15, 2018 and August 12, 2019.

So far, during the calender year 2019, a total of around 84,000 vehicles were recalled by manufacturers to fix issues related to faulty airbags, higher emissions and anti-lock braking system (ABS). Analysts said that in most cases when the recall happens, it is due to the faulty component which the supplier has to rectify. “If there is a failure, it could be because of the OEMs negligence or there could be problems with certain batch of the sample component. Usually one batch has a problem which OEMs might miss,” VG Ramakrishnan, managing partner, Avanteum Advisors LLP told FE.

This is the second time in the year when Maruti Suzuki recalled its vehicles. In February, the company had recalled 3,757 Baleno to inspect and update modified software in actuator assembly ABS, a key part of the braking system. Maruti, however, said it wasn’t a recall as there was no safety concern involved.

While Honda Cars India in July recalled 5,088 units of its previous generation models of Jazz, City, CR-V, Civic and Accord in India to rectify faulty Takata airbags, Ford India recalled 22,690 units of previous-generation of premium SUV Endeavour to check faulty airbag inflators last month. The company further said it is carrying out an inspection of battery monitoring system (BMS) wiring harnesses installation for all vehicles, numbering around 30,000 made at its Sanand plant between September 2017 and April 2019.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) India in February recalled 11,002 units of its SUV Jeep Compass for updating powertrain control module (PCM) software to rectify variations that may cause non-compliance with emission norms.

Experts attributed the increase in recalls to higher usage of softwares and electronic components. Kaushik Madhavan, vice-president, Mobility Practice, Frost & Sullivan, said recalls are bound to happen due to increasing use of electronic components which may stop functioning properly. “From customers perspective, it does put a dent on their trust and reliability but the cost of not rectifying the fault would be even more,” Madhavan said.

Voluntary recall of vehicles (cars and two-wheelers) grew over two-fold in the calendar year 2018 compared to a year ago, data sourced from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) show. While the number of cars recalled stood at 158,937 units in 2018, compared with 99,079 units in 2017, two-wheelers recall surged multi-fold from 523 units last year to 56,649 units in 2018. Total cars and two-wheelers recalled in 2018 stood at 215,586 units, against 99,602 units in 2017.