Here’s how to check if your car has an open recall – and who pays for it
If you’ve ever gotten a recall notice via snail mail, you know how easy it is to set the letter aside…and then totally forget about it. It’s a good idea to manually check for the possibility of an open recall on your car every once in a while. Fortunately, there are a couple of easy ways to do this. What’s more, when I wrote service at an independent repair facility, some vehicle owners asked whether we could fix the recall for them and asked how much it would cost. I’ll address all of these concepts below.
Do a quick online search or call to locate an open recall
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is housed within the U.S. Department of Transportation. The group works closely with automakers participating in the American market to properly investigate, address, and communicate vehicle safety concerns.
The NHTSA has a really easy-to-navigate recall search page. You can visit it at nhtsa.gov/recalls. Simply enter your car’s year, make, and model. There’s also a field to enter either your vehicle identification number (VIN) or your license plate number. Of course, the latter fields require you to have that specific info on hand.
The second easiest way to check for an open recall is to call a local car dealership. Dealerships partnered directly with the automaker can look up recalls based on the year, make, and model or VIN.
If you find out you have an open recall, don’t sweat the bill.
Recalls are always paid for by the automaker.
Also, keep in mind that recall repairs must be made at an OEM-certified facility. This typically means that even if you regularly visit a trusted, independent shop, recalls have to be done at a dealership. The dealership is prepped by the OEM to perform recalls and will be reimbursed for their time. This isn’t the case if you visit an independent shop.
The only situation I ever heard of an OEM reimbursing a vehicle owner for a recall performed outside of a certified dealership is when the repairs were made before a recall was formally issued. However, in these cases, expect the automaker to restrict reimbursement according to their own parameters.
