By Jamie Barrie W hen I was a kid, and that was a few years ago, my father always told me to never buy a car in its production year. He would say all the time, ``Let them work the kinks out, not you``. Well I thought that over time and increased technology that those words didn’t have as strong a meaning anymore, even though for the record I have never brought a car in its first year of production for the model. Today it seems like every time you turn on the news or read an automotive article that there has been another recall by a manufacture from everyone from Toyota to Tesla. With the auto market as hot as it is right now, maybe it is time to put for focus keeping the cars on the road rather than getting them there. In the first quarter of 2016 alone over 6.5 million automobiles have been recalled from sub- compacts to off road kings like the Jeep Wrangler and even brands like Telsa have been affected. Recently Fiat Chrysler Automobiles recalled 506,420 of its popular Jeep Wrangler SUVs, which is marketed as a rugged off-road vehicle, because off-road driving may cause the driver-side air bag not to open in a crash. A clockspring located in the steering wheel that forms part of the circuit that helps control air bag function can, if driven off-road extensively or with the Wrangler’s top or doors removed, keep the driver-side air bag from deploy- ing in a crash.
United States; 35,412 in Canada; 8,529 in Mexico; and 62,580 outside North America. Another 7,435 from 2011 to 2016 model years equipped with right-hand drive for special duty in the United States. Separately, Fiat Chrysler said it would recall 80,474 Fiat 500 subcompact cars from the model years 2012 to 2016 because of potentially defective clutch operation in manual shift cars. Of the cars recalled, 39,217 are in the United States; 7,834 in Canada; 7,155 in Mexico; and 26,268 outside North America. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles says it is voluntarily recalling 187,436 of the 2009-2016 Dodge Journey in sold in Canada as well as almost 11,000 U.S. market vehicles equipped with optional block heaters, to fix a problem involving a possible leak of power-steering fluid in extreme cold- weather conditions. There was a similar issue with another 108,000 vehicles, the 2011-2013 Chrysler 200, the 2007-2010 Chrysler Sebring and the 2007-2013 Dodge Avenger. Then the recall bug hit Fiat Chrysler again as they recalled more than 1.1 million (811,586 vehicles in the U.S. and an estimated 52,144 vehicles in Canada) cars and midsize SUVs worldwide because their gear shifters may confuse drivers and allow them to exit their vehicles without placing them in “park.”
These recalls were for the 2012-2014 Dodge Chargers, 2012-2014 Chrysler 300 sedans, and 2014-2015 Jeep
Globally, 498,985 Wrangler SUVs from 2007 to 2010 model years are affected by the recall, including 392,464 in the
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