What's Your Auto Recall Horror Story?

Photo: Joe Raedle (Getty Images)

Last year was one of the biggest on record for automotive recalls. The industry blamed supply chain issues and worker shortages for the shoddy build quality that caused many of the recalls. Then again, OEMs were compelled to keep churning parts to build cars for record profits, which the auto industry has lately seen.

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Those left in the lurch in many of these cases are car owners, so we want to hear about when these recalls affected you. What are your recall horror stories?

For many Americans, the Ford Explorer and Firestone tire recalls of the mid-to-late 1990s come to mind when we think of the auto industry’s biggest blunders, which have even cost some people their lives. The Takata airbag recalls of modern Hondas (among others) are a more contemporary case than the flip-prone Ford Explorers, but both made us collectively pause and consider the possibility of recalls affecting us day to day.

What happens when the thing you rely on for a huge portion of your life gets recalled due to mistakes you never made? That’s the real horror. Hell is other people ruining your car long before you ever touched it. When have these recalls affected you, in what make and model, and how bad is your recall horror story?