RECALLS for Japanese cars are up, by a staggering 25 percent.
This is most unusual. People bet houses on Japanese car reliability, so to see a rise in fault-related recalls of a quarter is more than eye-opening.
But, meticulous as ever, Japanese analysts have quickly discovered the root cause. What, slipping standards? Decline in quality? Cost-cutting?
No – the sharing of common parts across more models.
Really, see, the number of parts faults hasn’t increased. Standards haven’t changed. Everything is as it was. It’s just that now, a single part used on one car can also be used on many more. More than has ever traditionally been the case.
And, such multiplication means that, if the part has a fault in one car, then it will suffer a fault in all the others, too.
Hence, the rise in recalls. If it’s a component that’s the problem, you have to bring back every car using that component.
Manufacturers do it, of course, to save money. Why develop bespoke bits for every car you sell, when the same ones can be used across all of them?
This is a trend that’s only growing as car ranges diversify.
It therefore follows that Japan’s leanest manufacturer may show the biggest increase in car recalls.
So it proves. Toyota: cars recalled last year? Over 1.1 million. A jump of 44 percent.
Component sharing is here to stay, though. Solution? Well, rest assured the Japanese are working on it. Right now. If I were an OEM supplier, I’d be bracing myself from a whole heap of imminent car company edicts and demands…
