To fix this problem, dealers will remove and replace the side door latches.

More than 257 million vehicles have now been processed through the Vehicle Recall Search Service (VRSS), a tool aimed at creating greater consumer awareness of auto recalls.

The VRSS is closing in on its two-year anniversary after launching in March 2018. The program was developed jointly by CARFAX and the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a newly combined trade association representing innovative manufacturers and value chain partners who together produce nearly 99 percent of all light-duty vehicles sold in the United States. With this tool, approved commercial and government entities, like state departments of motor vehicles (DMVs), auto insurers and finance companies, are able to search for open recalls for thousands of autos at once, free of charge.

VRSS has identified over 8 million vehicles on the road with an open recall, of which 1.7 million of them had an open Takata airbag recall. Nearly 39 percent of those, or 656,000 vehicles with an open Takata airbag recall, have been repaired, according to Carfax.

Currently, there are eight state DMVs registered to use the tool to provide supplemental recall notifications to consumers. 

Ford Motor Co. is issuing a safety recall for select 2013-18 Ford Flex, Ford Taurus Police Interceptor Sedan, Ford Taurus SHO and Lincoln MKT vehicles. Affected vehicles that are exposed to frequent full rear-suspension articulation (jounce and rebound) may experience a fractured rear suspension toe link. A rear toe link fracture while driving increases the risk of a crash.

Ford is not aware of any reports of accidents or injuries related to this condition for the specified vehicles. This action affects 211,207 vehicles in the U.S. and federal territories, 15,281 in Canada and 1,396 in Mexico.

Affected vehicles include: 2013-18 Ford Flex and Lincoln MKT vehicles built at Oakville Assembly Plant, Sept. 12, 2011 to June 1, 2017; and the 2013-18 Ford Taurus Police Interceptor Sedan and Ford Taurus SHO Performance Pack equipped vehicles built at Chicago Assembly Plant, Aug. 25, 2011 to June 1, 2017.

Dealers will replace the left- and right-hand rear suspension toe links with new forged toe links. The Ford reference number for this recall is 20S04.

Rapid Recon, the creator of time-to-line (T2L) vehicle reconditioning solutions, reported that dealerships using its safety recall management application had generated an additional $16 million in recall-related service repair revenue.

Mark Paul, AutoAp founder and chief executive officer, said insights from more than six years’ serving auto retailers shows that dealers using the company’s safety recall management technology find between 8 percent to 12 percent more vehicles affected by safety recalls. These are safety recalls that a dealer’s manual recall inspection process or use of traditional safety recall services fail to find.

“We’re finding that for every 100 vehicles having at least one safety recall, a total of 124 total recalls will be found by our process,” Paul said.

Safety recalls remain a significant concern for the auto industry and its retailers. Though the frequency of newly reported safety recalls is about the same year-over-year, safety recalls will remain an ever-present risk due to the increasing complexity of new safety features OEMs are delivering – and when properly managed, an opportunity for dealers.