Was that recalled car fixed? Answer is now a click away

A new online search tool allows consumers to type in a vehicle identification number, or VIN, to check on whether recall repairs have been completed on a specific car, truck or motorcycle. The service, which began Wednesday, is available on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website – safercar.gov – or the sites of individual automakers.

The free search tool lets consumers quickly learn whether a vehicle they are thinking about buying has a safety problem that has not been addressed. Recalled vehicles can be repaired without charge at franchised dealers.

This is the first time consumers will be able to use a VIN on the safety agency’s site to determine whether a recall issue has been addressed on a particular car. The service will also be available on NHTSA’s Safercar app for iOS and Android devices.

Recall defects often aren’t addressed by a vehicle’s owner even if that person knows of the problem, David J. Friedman, the deputy administrator of NHTSA, said in a news teleconference on Tuesday.

“These vehicles can sometimes be sold or rented to someone who is completely unaware of that recall,” he said. “In many cases that can put an owner’s life at risk, and risk the safety of others on America’s roads.”

Friedman said that when a vehicle was recalled, its owner should have the appropriate repair performed as soon as possible.

Previously, consumers who visited the safety agency’s website to check on recalls could search by vehicle make and model year to learn whether a particular model was, in general, subject to a recall. They could not, however, find out whether a specific used car – perhaps one they were considering for purchase – had been recalled, but not repaired.

Although some automakers had a feature that allowed consumers to check for incomplete recalls by using a VIN, that feature was not always easy to find if it even existed. But NHTSA issued a final rule a year ago that required all major automakers and motorcycle manufacturers to provide a VIN look-up tool, to place it prominently on their consumer websites and to update the information at least once a week.

VINs can usually be found inside the driver’s side door – on the center pillar, where the door latches when it is closed – or on a small metal plate mounted on the dash just inside the lower corner of the windshield on the driver’s side.

The new rule is expected not only to benefit used-car shoppers, but also to help increase recall completion rates for all vehicles. The safety agency said only about 70 percent of recall repairs were made.

Recall data will go back at least 15 years under the new rules. Automakers are not required by federal law to perform free recall repairs on vehicles more than 10 years old, but they usually opt to make the repairs anyway.

Regarding privacy concerns, the agency said it would not gather personal information on the site, so it would not be possible to track who checked the recall status.

NHTSA said the same information would be available on automakers’ consumer websites.

This story was originally published August 21, 2014 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Was that recalled car fixed? Answer is now a click away."