Saturday, March 26, 2016 GoLocalWorcester Lifestyle Team & Graphiq
Buying a car requires a significant investment and demands the consideration of everything from technology to safety. Equally as important is a manufacturer’s dependability — the last thing you want is to buy a model that will continually require repairs due to manufacturer defects.
AxleGeeks identified the car manufacturers with the most vehicles affected by safety recalls reported since Jan. 1, 2015. Using data from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, we sorted brands in ascending order, placing brands with the most widespread recalls at the top. However, the total volume of cars produced by a given manufacturer is unavailable, making it impossible to determine what percentage of a brand's vehicles ultimately fall victim to manufacturer defects. An authority on cars and car brands, AxleGeeks recently launched an app to provide users with the latest information on the go.
Note: While we considered recalls reported after Jan. 1, 2015, they do not necessarily affect vehicles made in 2015 and, in fact, are more likely to affect older models.
#10. Mercedes-Benz
Total Number of Recalled Vehicles: 1,203,210 Total Number of Recalls: 22 Brands: Mercedes-Benz, Smart
In 2015, Mercedes-Benz reported 22 recalls — double what it administered in the previous year — that affected over 1 million models.
#9. Hyundai
Total Number of Recalled Vehicles: 1,568,871 Total Number of Recalls: 15
Hyundai has issued 15 recalls since the beginning of 2015, affecting 1.5 million vehicles and surpassing totals of other non-luxury brands such as Subaru and Volkswagen.
#8. BMW
Total Number of Recalled Vehicles: 1,568,305 Total Number of Recalls: 19 Brands: BMW, Mini
Since 2015, BMW administered more recalls than many of its luxury brand counterparts, including Mercedes-Benz and Audi; in fact, BMW has administered at least 15 separate recalls each year since 2012.
#7. Nissan Motor Company
Total Number of Recalled Vehicles: 3,992,606 Total Number of Recalls: 23 Brands: Nissan, Infiniti
Nissan, which averaged nearly 16 recalls annually from 2010 to 2015, has reported 23 recalls since 2015 affecting nearly 4 million models — more than double the total number of vehicles impacted by recalls in 2014.
#6. Mitsubishi
Total Number of Recalled Vehicles: 4,885,280 Total Number of Recalls: 10
Since 2015, Mitsubishi administered recalls affecting over 4 million vehicles, a 15-fold increase from 2014. The dramatic increase resulted from the recall of Mitsubishi Raiders from 2006 to 2009, which potentially reached over 4 million models.
#5. Ford Motor Company
Total Number of Recalled Vehicles: 5,410,495 Total Number of Recalls: 53 Brands: Ford, Lincoln
With 53 separate recalls and over 5 million models impacted, Ford issued three times as many as recalls as BMW.
#4. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA)
Total Number of Recalled Vehicles: 6,867,022 Total Number of Recalls: 10 Brands: Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Ram
Since 2015, Chrysler issued 10 recalls that reached over 6 million models, more than double the amount of models affected in the previous year.
#3. Toyota Motor Company
Total Number of Recalled Vehicles: 8,420,039 Total Number of Recalls: 27 Brands: Toyota, Scion
Toyota administered recalls on over 8 million of its models since 2015, surpassing the combined total models recalled by Hyundai and Mitsubishi.
#2. General Motors (GM)
Total Number of Recalled Vehicles: 10,602,714 Total Number of Recalls: 52 Brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC
With 52 recalls and over 10 million affected models, Chevrolet reported the most recalls among American manufacturers — triple the total recalls reported by Hyundai in the same timeframe.
#1. Honda Motor Company
Total Number of Recalled Vehicles: 13,577,460 Total Number of Recalls: 26 Brands: Honda, Acura
Honda earned the distinction as the car manufacturer with the most safety recalls, with over 13 million models affected. For perspective, Honda’s recalls affected more vehicles than all the recalls of Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, BMW, Nissan and Mitsubishi combined.
Who can forget Clark Griswold aka Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's Vacation, going to pick up his new “sports wagon” only to be forced to accept the Wagon Queen Family Truckster with amazing wood paneling. It was created just for this film and was based on a 1979 Ford LTD Country Squire which was equally embarrassing to drive. And, to add insult to injury, Clark had to try and be cool in this car when Christie Brinkely drove by in her Ferrari 308GTS.
This may not really be underrated as a picture car but because Mel Gibson soared to stardom after this film, it’s easy to forget the machine that helped make it happen. The 1973 XB GT Ford Falcon was simply, bad ass. This car never made it to the U.S. and was featured in the Australian film with a few modifications. The regular XB GT had a 351-cid V8, but for Mad Max the car creators fattened up the tires, gave it a new front nose and flares, and added a supercharger that stuck out of the hood. Despite the fact that the supercharger wasn’t real, it doesn’t diminish the cool factor.
Quentin Tarantino’s 2007 homage to the classic ‘70’s exploitation movies and muscle cars was modestly received, but for car geeks and car chase fans, it was awesome. Stuntman Mike, played by Kurt Russell, drove two classic movie cars in his psychopathic attempt to rid the roads of all hot women. His “death proof” cars were a 1971 Chevrolet Nova SS 396 that Rose McGowan’s character found out wasn’t “death proof” for the passenger. After he dispatched the first batch of women, he finds his next car, a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T 500. Unfortunately for Stuntman Mike, he was no match for the “Vanishing Point” 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T.
This 1976 movie was the inspiration to other coast to coast racing movies like Cannonball and Cannonball Run. Don’t hold that against it. This film featured some great fun, great cars and the tagline for every boy racer that summer, “GUMBALL." Michael Sarrazin played a rich, bored businessman. He sends word to his fellow racers via a gumball that the race is on from New York to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. The movie featured a young, funny Rau’l Julia who was the professional Ferrari driver and uttered the perfect car racer line as he rips off the rear view mirror, “what is behind me is not important.” Some of the beautiful cars making the cross country trip were an AC Cobra, Ferrari Daytona and Gary Busey behind the wheel in a Camaro Z-28.
Larry Brown was the West Coast PR manager for VW/Porsche Audi in the early 80’s when a director came to him with a great script idea and wanted to use a Porsche for his movie Risky Business. Brown read the script and then thought about his conservative German bosses and how they would react to a high school kid running a brothel out of his parent’s home when they were out of town. And, oh by the way, dumping a 928 into Lake Michigan. He said he had to pass. Fortunately for us and Porsche, the director had only the Porsche 928 in mind for the star car and found one of his own. Tom Cruise, who had never driven a stick, learned to drive on the Porsche. While the 928 now ranks as one of the least interesting Porsches made, this film made it cool for a while. Who can forget Joel, Lana and Miles escaping from Guido the Killer Pimp and puling up to the curb and Cruise uttering the great Porsche marketing slogan, “Porsche, there is no substitute.” That is probably only matched when, after the cars swim in the lake, the car door is opened at the dealership and the shop manager asks, “so, who’s the U Boat commander” This was perfect proof that the right car can help make a movie.
William Friedkin’s 1985 stylish drama with young William Petersen and Willam Dafoe showcased a chase scene on and off the freeways of LA and rivals that of Bullitt. The car Petersen drove to escape his pursuers was a 1985 Checy Impala F41. It had been rented directly from the LAPD. The car sequence was shot in six weeks and apparently, Fridkin wasn’t so sure of its success and shot it last so that if anything happened to the actors, the balance of the movie was in the can.
The repetitious saying, “what happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” didn’t prove true for the beautiful 1965 Mercedes Benz 220SE Convertible that Bradley Cooper and crew take to Vegas in the first, and best, Hangover film. This was the perfect choice for classic cars for the screws ups to take on their bender weekend. During the making of the film, three convertibles were used to make the film and a couple of coupes were cut up and pieced together to look like the classic Mercedes so no fears on its destruction. It was just movie magic.
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