# What Should I Do If My Car is Recalled?



## AutoGuide.com (Jul 26, 2010)

It's only April and over 13 million vehicles have already been recalled. Here's what you need to do to if yours is one of them.

Recall announcements are often made by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) rather than the automaker. You probably have better things to do than pour over NHTSA's database, so we publish announcements about widespread recalls.

You can also check to see if your car is affected by a recall by going to the "vehicle owners" section of SaferCar.gov and searching for your vehicle. Vehicles aren't the only products that NHTSA requests to be recalled by the manufacturer. Child seats and tires are monitored for safety concerns as well.

Getting Notice
If your car is affected by a new recall, then you can expect to notification in the mail. These letters are sent out by using the state's vehicle registration database.

The letter will inform you that there's a potential safety concern with your vehicle and generally will ask you to take it to an authorized dealer for service. In some cases, like when there's a need for a replacement part, the letter will state when the safety fix will be available and how long the repair will take. In some extreme cases, the letter will even tell you to stop driving your car.

Don't worry if you lost the letter or didn't receive it in the first place. You can still obtain the notice of the recall from the NHTSA website and take it to your local dealership to get help. 

More: *What Should I Do If My Car is Recalled?* on AutoGuide.com


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

If you have Active OnStar it will also show up in your monthly emails. This Axle recall literally fell just after this months email so you will only see it on the website.


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## ALBERTA (Mar 29, 2014)

I got the recall notice in this months email from OnStar. Then I got a phone call from the dealerships service department the next day to book a time for me to bring the car in. They were so sure it was one of the ones needing repair and it was "unsafe to continue driving" they immediately offered a rental vehicle. After about an hour of waiting for a ride to the Budget, and just as the agent was filling out the remaining information for the rental I get a phone call from the dealership that they just lifted the car up and saw that it was not the recalled part so my car was fine. Well their shuttle couldn't come pick me up for a while and the rental car place wasn't about to offer me a ride back if they aren't getting business so I just told the dealership that GM is paying for the rental for the day because I needed to get to work. The rental was a 2014 Cruze LT only difference was the colour... and it was disgustingly dirty inside and out. Food crumbs, empty bottles, and stuff sprayed all over the inside as well as pet hair.

All in all it was an unnecessary hassle when they should have just taken the five minutes to check and see if the part was even one of the defective ones. I was out about 3 hours of my time and a bit of hair all because GM is so anal about recalls now since the ignition thing.


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