If you can't recall another year in which there were this many automobile recalls, that's because there hasn't been a year worse than this one is already - and it's only July.
So far, in 2014, automobile recalls have surpassed the 40 million mark. That accelerates past the record established in 2004 of 30.8 million.
On the surface, it seems hard to believe that this year, for some reason, automakers have conspired to allow knowingly defective or sloppily engineered or manufactured vehicles to proliferate.
To some degree, the automobile industry may be a victim of its own success. Booming car sales puts pressure on makers to increase supply, and ramping up production may lead to manufacturing errors caused by a rush to meet these demands.
Part of the recall plague is caused by the reliance on part suppliers who are experiencing problems of their own.
Japan's Takata Corporation, for example, supplies airbags to many of the world's automakers. Takata has suffered from internal corruption problems, and poor bookkeeping and record-keeping practices have helped amplify some quality control issues with their airbag components that directly caused many recalls that have affected several automobile manufacturers - not just once, but repeatedly, as Takata cannot seem to get a handle on just how many defective airbags it has produced, resulting in multiple recall campaigns per manufacturer for the same issue.
Manufacturers who have been forced to issue recalls due to Takata's mistakes include BMW, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Toyota, Ford, Chrysler and GM.
Many of these recalls involve older models that can be particularly hard to track down, making execution of a recall campaign particularly difficult.
One answer is to look to General Motors for about 30 million vehicles of that total. The company, which has had a particularly bad year, most recently recalled another 717,949 cars for a loose seat issue.
GM's problems are centered around a faulty ignition switch that has been tied to 13 deaths to this date. It can be traced to a combination of incompetence and cover-ups that has hit the company particularly hard, leading to huge losses and a thoroughly degraded reputation.
Chrysler has also experienced similar ignition switch issues, but without any attributed fatalities. Over 1.6 million vehicles were recalled for this issue.
Chrysler's most peculiar recall (of 900,000 vehicles) this year involved sun visor mirrors that could short circuit and catch fire. On a more dangerous note, the company was accused of dragging its feet by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NAFTA) on conducting a recall campaign on 1.56 million Jeeps for a fuel tank rupture issue that was considered responsible for at least 51 deaths.
Even Harley-Davidson, the American motorcycle maker, and Graco, a supplier of infant car seats, fell prey to the recall epidemic.
It's likely that the massive problems experienced by GM led to a scramble by other automakers to avoid joining GM in public relations hell by conduct preventative "good will" campaigns on their vehicles, also in response to the increased scrutiny by the public and by the NHTSA after the GM debacle.
It's also true that automakers have become more adept at spotting issues before they become disasters through ever more efficient quality control programs. Ironically, the cavalcade of recalls this year comes at a time when in general, vehicles are designed and manufactured better than they have ever been.
