The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) is said to be working on formulating a voluntary vehicle recall policy for the Indian OEMs, a first for the Indian automotive industry. This policy will be on voluntary lines and seek to systematize the procedure and specifications of vehicle recall.
The past few years have seen the Indian manufacturers follow the international practice of fixing design or manufacturing glitches at its own cost by recalling the affected vehicles through dealerships. There were no formal announcements that led to confusion regarding these recalls as some manufacturers denied the instance of recall to avoid any negative publicity. 'There is no government policy existing to regulate such recalls' as said by SIAM president S. Sandilya.
In 2009, market leader Maruti Suzuki recalled about one lakh units of the A-star hatchback for checking a possible fuel leakage and changing the Fuel pump gasket. In 2010, Tata Motors asked about 70,000 Nano owners to add fire-safety-devices free of cost after the Nano burning incidences. Later in 2011, they also replaced the faulty starter motors of about 140,000 Nano cars, the biggest ever replacement exercise in the Indian automobile industry. The year 2011 also saw Toyota recall of about 41,000 units of the Etios and Liva models.
SIAM is working on the policy now and would be out with a draft in a few months time. The policy may involve companies making a formal announcement in case of recall. The guidelines will, however, not be mandatory to all companies. According to SIAM, 'the policy is in the interest of manufacturers making them pro-active instead of reactive'.
