You don't work in a certain industry for long without learning how big the circle is. Your circle consists of others who work your job, or other jobs that relate to your job. In the world of automobile dealership service departments, the circle is pretty small. Some people work one dealership their whole career, some follow the money and hop around. Some are forced to move, because of downsizing, product elimination, dealer closings and the like. Simply put, I know people who work on just about every vehicle make out there. I also watch the news. Most nights, watching the news tells me which of my friends is going to have a bad day tomorrow, based on which make issued a recall that day. Lately, it's all of us. I don't know of a single make out there that doesn't have some kind of recall. It's getting a little crazy!
There is a time and a place for auto recalls. If your car is dangerous because of a design flaw or faulty part, and all of the cars made at the same time are equally dangerous, the people who built the car should fix it. But today I'm going to play devil's advocate and call this trend into question. Let the hate mail begin.
I'll admit the world's a different place than when I was a child. Our seat belt was the "Mom arm" that came out to catch us as she pushed the brake pedal. Our car seat was just that: the car seat. I would lay on the parcel shelf in the back of the car and wave at the trucks behind us. Somehow we all survived. I'm certainly not advocating this behavior now, as the streets are far more crowded and cars are built much differently today. But I am saying, at some point you have to own your own car and be responsible for what is going on inside it.
Sometimes while driving you need to ask yourself what would happen if... and drive as if it might. What would happen if my accelerator pedal stuck right now? How long would I have before I ran into the car in front of me? Maybe I should back off a bit. What would happen if my car shut off or stalled right now? Would I have time to put it in neutral and restart it before the guy behind me ran into me? Maybe I should get over a lane. What if my gas gauge is telling me I have an eighth of a tank more than I actually have? Maybe I should fill up more often. What would happen if my back up camera stopped working? Can I see behind me? What would happen if my brakes went out right now? Do I know how to safely use the emergency brake? At some point, we have to remember our car is a tool. We are the ones using the tool. It's our responsibility to use it correctly. And if we don't, whose fault is it? The car's? The people who made the car? The road? The government? No. It's our fault.
I think maybe this is what's becoming a problem now. Somebody has to be at fault. We need somebody to blame. I get it. If something bad happens to a loved one, our first instinct is to find somebody to blame. "Whose fault is this?" we ask ourselves, and often go in search of that party. But sometimes, let's face it, it's nobody's fault. We have nobody to blame, or worse, the loved one is at fault. But we need to place the blame somewhere. Somebody has to pay, either with money or some other means. And at the end of the day, when the blame has been placed and the debt has been paid, the bad thing that happened still happened. It didn't bring them back. It didn't make them whole. It didn't make you better. So why do we insist on repeating the same pattern?
Cars aren't the only thing being recalled, I know. Sometimes it's food, and sometimes rightly so. Sometimes it's furniture, electronics, appliances, even building materials. Some are valid. Some are a bit puzzling. A major US automaker just issued a recall for cars sold in 1999. You read that right, these cars were sold in a whole different millennium! Let's be real; if you haven't had issues yet with your 16 year old car, you're not going to! And if you do, come on! You've been driving this thing long enough it can legally drive itself! Whose responsibility is it to take care of it?
I too have cars with recalls. Do I get them done? Sure. But if something is wrong with said car, before or after said recall, I know it is also my problem. Therefore, my responsibility. I don't expect it to be free. Know why? Because it's my car! I own it, and all that comes with it. I know if I don't watch its tires and brakes, they may go flat or stop working for me. I know if I hang 20 pounds of crap on my key chain, that crap might catch on something and put my key in a position it shouldn't be. I know if I lose my power steering or I'm suddenly going faster or slower than I was, or if my gas gauge is wrong, or my navigation system suddenly thinks I'm in Siberia, it's not the end of the world. I must figure out how to adapt, and then I must pay to repair it. End of story.
