Where a Recall Stops
Some campaigns in CarTold's recall records name several brands under the same parent company. Far fewer name brands from different companies. For a buyer, the useful check is the campaign's vehicle list: changing badges may leave you looking at another car covered by the same recall.
How far a recall reaches
Every one of the 344 recall campaigns in our database, classified by how many marques its own summary text names, and whether those marques share a corporate parent.
| Reach | Campaigns | Share |
|---|---|---|
| One marque only | 203 | 59% |
| Several marques, same corporate parent | 139 | 40% |
| Several marques, crossing corporate parents | 2 | 1% |
Campaigns that name more than one corporate group
Only 2 of 344 campaigns name marques from more than one corporate group. The examples below include shared vehicles: the Chevrolet City Express/Nissan NV200 and Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ.
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE:DELIVERY:FUEL PUMP
Subaru of America, Inc. (Subaru) is recalling certain 2019-2020 Ascent, 2018 Forester, 2018-2020 Impreza, Legacy, Outback, 2018-2019 BRZ, WRX, and Toyota 86 vehicles. The low-pressure fuel pump inside the fuel tank may fail.
Marques named: Toyota, Subaru
AIR BAGS:SENSOR:OCCUPANT CLASSIFICATION
Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2016-2017 Nissan Maxima, 2013-2016 Nissan Altima, NV200, LEAF, Sentra, and Pathfinder, 2014-2016 Nissan NV200 Taxi, Infiniti QX60, QX60 Hybrid, and Q50 Hybrid, 2014-2017 Nissan Rogue and Infiniti Q50, 2015-2016 Nissan Murano, Murano Hybrid, and Chevrolet City Express, 2014-2015 Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid, and 2013 Infiniti JX35 vehicles. In these veh…
Marques named: Chevrolet, Nissan, Infiniti
In one, a Nissan campaign covers the Chevrolet City Express — which is a Nissan NV200 wearing a Chevrolet badge. In the other, a Subaru campaign covers the Toyota 86, developed alongside the Subaru BRZ. These examples involve shared vehicles and do not measure how often unrelated cars use a faulty part from the same supplier.
What the investigation summaries name
| Reach | Investigations |
|---|---|
| One marque only | 24 |
| Several marques, same corporate parent | 13 |
| Several marques, crossing corporate parents | 1 |
The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened this investigation to determine if the failure of airbags to deploy during severe crashes, in certain vehicles, was the result of a safety related defect. During the investigation a complex failure was studied that can result in non-deployment of subject vehicle air bags and other restraint system devices in severe crash events. The subject vehicles may be equipped w…
Marques named: Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia
Why the two records differ
One supplier problem can lead to several manufacturer recalls. Counting the brands named within a single campaign therefore does not capture every connection between vehicles. Separate campaigns can concern the same component without naming each other's vehicles.
A NHTSA investigation can examine several manufacturers together. EA19001 is an example in this dataset: its summary names seven brands across four groups. That is one case, not evidence that investigations generally span more companies than recalls.
To research a suspected connection, read both the recall documents and investigation scope. A shared component name is a reason to check the details, not proof that two vehicles have the same defect. Our open-investigation list groups cases across the models we track.
Download data as CSVLimitations
Marque detection reads each campaign's summary text, so a campaign covering a marque without naming it there is missed. The 40% figure describes detected names, not confirmed coverage; missing names can change which category a campaign belongs to. Corporate groupings are as of the data-check date and ignore historical ownership changes, so an older campaign is classified against today's map. This database holds recalls and investigations associated with the 18 models CarTold tracks, so campaigns touching only other vehicles are absent entirely; this describes the campaigns touching our tracked models, not all of NHTSA's. The investigation set is small — 38 in total, with 1 crossing corporate lines — so the examples should be read individually. These categories do not measure how often vehicles fail or how safe a brand is.
Sources and methodology
- Recalls and investigations: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- Each summary is searched for 24 U.S.-market brand names as whole words. A campaign is then grouped using the brands found in that summary.
- Corporate groupings are CarTold's, applied to NHTSA's own text. See our methodology and data sources.
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Copy the figures with their source link. The copied table is a snapshot; the full page explains the classification and its limits.