New Software for Car Dealers Tracks, Corrects Recall Info

Auto recalls have reached such a high level that a company now offers dealers a software system that keeps track of the latest developments.

AutoAp has launched Dynamic Recall Management that provides daily recall updates for new and used vehicles.

The company says the product elimates the need for dealers to manually check their entire inventories for recall status daily and to rely on government and manufacturer websites for their information.

Such information often is inaccurate, incomplete or not up to date, says Auto Ap, adding a review of the NHTSA database found up to 30% of safety recalls had one or more errors.

As a result, dealers are often unaware that they have vehicles on their lots with open recalls needing repair and can unwittingly sell those to consumers.

The number of vehicle safety recalls has soared in recent years. In 2013, there were approximately 36 million vehicles on the road with open recalls. More than 63 million vehicles were affected by safety recalls in 2014. That’s 25% of registered vehicles in the U.S.

Recalls of the past typically were associated with poor quality issues. But many of today’s recalls are because cars are more complicated and more can potentially go wrong.

“Recalls have dominated the news headlines in the past year, as they go up in number and attract high-profile lawsuits,” says AutoAp CEO Mark Paul. “No dealer I know wants to knowingly sell a vehicle with an open safety recall.”

AutoAp says its new system corrects the errors in NHTSA’s data through a proprietary software process and interfaces with dealer inventory software to identify vehicles that face recalls. The service provides daily status reports.

“Safety recalls are a serious challenge for the entire industry,” says dealer Brad Preble, president of Carr Auto Group in Oregon said.

Despite Auto Ap’s name, the recall software system is cloud-based, not app-related.

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