> Recalls in consumers' minds are a frustration measurement more than a safety record. Most recalls are about very small/hypothetical risks, so the risk I want to avoid when I look at manufacturers recall history is the risk of having to fix my vehicle physically.
Recalls are frustrating precisely because they're safety issues. Otherwise, customers could safely ignore recall notices and experience no frustration.
There's no law that says a customer has to respond to a recall. That's entirely voluntary.
True, but tiny risk of catastrophic failure will be addressed by owners almost no matter how trivial. And it won't see as a relief by me that I managed to fix it before it spontaneously caught fire, I'll still see it as a frustrating failure by the manufacturer. Because I can both see it as a near-zero risk, and still do it with near 100% certainty. Especially if I don't know whether the window for fixing it easily/for free could close and it could affect the second hand value of the car.
> And it won't see as a relief by me that I managed to fix it before it spontaneously caught fire, I'll still see it as a frustrating failure by the manufacturer.
In this respect, there's no difference between OTA updates and dealership repairs.
Taking time out of your schedule is indeed frustrating, but manfacturer defects that could kill you, maim you, harm your car, or make it malfunction are also frustrating, regardless of how the defects are fixed.
Think about non-vehicle software bugs, like in your computer operating system. Those are frustrating, even though they can be fixed OTA.
Recalls are frustrating precisely because they're safety issues. Otherwise, customers could safely ignore recall notices and experience no frustration.
There's no law that says a customer has to respond to a recall. That's entirely voluntary.