‘Complete news to me’: Is your car one of many on road with open recall?

CHARLOTTE — New numbers show millions of vehicles are under recall but haven’t been fixed. It’s not just dangerous for the people in those vehicles but for others around them, according to out sister station WSOC.

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“Recalls are sort of coming fast and furious with a surprisingly large number of ‘do not drive’ and ‘park outside’ recalls,” CARFAX’s Patrick Olsen said. “We know that in North Carolina there are 1.4 million vehicles that have an unfixed recall, and in South Carolina, there’s about 1.1 million vehicles with an unfixed recall.”

Marie Hatley leased a new Volkswagen Atlas. She says the lease was coming to an end, so she planned to buy the vehicle and sell it immediately.

She told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke she found a dealership that was interested. That was until the dealer noticed a recall: the passenger airbag may not work.

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“Complete news to me ... recall? I haven’t been notified of anything,” she said.

Since Hatley says she was the first one to lease or own the SUV, she thought Volkswagen would have been able to track her down easily and alert her about the recall. But she says it didn’t.

“It’s frustrating. It’s disappointing,” she said.

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The car company announced the recall in June. “I’ve been on multiple trips since then with a passenger in my passenger seat. That’s a safety hazard. I could have gotten into a wreck and that person could have been injured,” she said.

Action 9 reached out to Volkswagen, but it didn’t respond in time for this report.

Even if she had known about the recall, the repair isn’t available yet.

Hatley decided she didn’t want the SUV anymore so she didn’t want to extend the lease. She says since she couldn’t buy and sell it, she only had one choice: to return it to Volkswagen, which she did.

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Advice from Action 9:

- Seeing if your car has an open recall is easy. Check online here.

- Check now and whenever you change your clocks.

- Don’t assume the company will notify you, especially if you bought used.

- Don’t assume your car is too old and that companies stop thinking about your model.

- If you do have a recall, the fix is free. Hopefully, the repair is available.

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