Recalls happen, regardless of whether you drive a Toyota Corolla or a Bugatti Chiron. Automakers are normally forced to fix problems after the national government concludes an investigation, but they sometimes voluntarily choose to ask owners to bring their car in for repairs if they notice a defect through internal testing. Keep in mind a recall notice doesn’t automatically make your car a lemon, bad, or unreliable. There’s no such thing as a perfect car, even in 2020. While many issues aren’t life-threatening, it’s important to get them fixed sooner rather than later.
Owners of a car affected by a recall normally receive a notice in the mail. When in doubt, there are several free online resources available that will help you tell if your vehicle (or your future vehicle) needs something fixed.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is the agency responsible for issuing recalls, so it’s naturally the first place you should look. Its website has a tool that lets you search open and closed recalls that affect a specific vehicle. All you need to know is the make, the model, and the year it was manufactured in.
If you want to look up information about a specific car, you can search for recalls by typing in your vehicle identification number (VIN). This sequence of letters and numbers can generally be found on registration documents (like your title and your registration), on your insurance card, and on your car’s dashboard; it’s likely visible through the windshield. Typing your 17-character VIN into the website will return recall information, including whether the problem has been fixed or not. We recommend checking for open recalls when you’re looking at used cars.
If you don’t like the NHTSA’s website, Cars.com offers a similar tool you can use to look up recall information. You need to start by selecting your car’s make, model, and year, and you also need to enter your zip code. It’s not tracking you; some recalls apply only to cars registered in specific climates, like those where the roads are salted in the winter, or those where humidity is far above the national average. Extreme weather conditions can wreak havoc on cars.
Once it processes the information you entered, the tool notifies you of any and all recalls by consulting the NHTSA’s database. Both sites provide the same data, but the difference is in how it’s presented.
Finally, you can search for recall information on a manufacturer’s website. Every carmaker has this information available, and you usually only need to enter your vehicle’s VIN to access it.
Finding recall-related information is simple, and it could save your life.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.