Safety recalls 'tip of the iceberg'

Recalls of Mitsubishi vehicles are the "tip of the iceberg", a motor listings guide editor says.

The Japanese Government database on which the recalls first appeared listed 1564 safety faults on vehicles, but there was no way of knowing if they had been fixed on vehicles exported to New Zealand, Dog & Lemon editor Clive Matthew-Wilson said yesterday.

Land Transport Safety Authority (LTSA) figures showed 80 per cent of vehicles on New Zealand roads had been affected by recalls at some stage.

"It's reasonable to assume that there have been recall notices on about 80 per cent of Japanese imports."

He said there should be checks on vehicles before they left Japan or were registered in New Zealand.

"None of these problems would have occurred if LTSA simply said 'if there's any outstanding recalls please get them fixed before they leave Tokyo'."

His comments follow the recall of more than 1000 Mitsubishi cars and trucks because of defects this month.

The recalls were posted on the company's Japanese site, in Japanese. LTSA says Mitsubishi failed to inform it of the recalls.

Recent problems with the Mitsubishi recalls showed there was "definitely room for improvement" in policy, LTSA media manager Andy Knackstedt said.

"More does need to be done to try to identify these vehicles quicker."

However, he said accountability must "ultimately rest with the manufacturers of a defective product".

Manufacturers also had to advise overseas subsidiaries and regulators of defects as soon as they were known.

"We need to work with the MIA [Motor Industry Association] and manufacturers to ... make sure information is more forthcoming."

The MIA had indicated to the LTSA it would compile a list of all recalls on a website, he said. The safety authority was now getting some information translated from Japanese because it could not rely on it coming "in a timely manner" from parent companies to its subsidiaries in New Zealand.

But Mr Matthew-Wilson said he remained sceptical of the authority's ability to find the information.

"The LTSA was warned by the MIA when Japanese imports first came that this issue would come up and they basically ignored it."

Dog & Lemon planned to put recall notices on its website within the next three months.

- NZPA