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Are modern cars less reliable than they used to be? You would be forgiven for thinking so given that car manufacturers are recalling vehicles more frequently than ever before.
Hardly a month passes without the National Consumer Commission (NCC) warning motorists to return their vehicles to dealerships for mechanical, software and safety-related repairs.
According to the NCC, vehicle recall campaigns rose from 25 in the 2023/24 financial year to 35 in 2024/25 before spiking to 75 in 2025/26.
A review of vehicle recall campaigns issued by the NCC over the past five years suggests that physical-component and mechanical defects still account for most recalls. These include faults affecting engines, transmissions, steering, brakes, suspension, fuel systems, airbags, seat belts and other hardware. However, an increasing number of recalls also involve software, electronic control units and other electronic systems.
Unlike a mechanical defect, which may affect only a particular production batch, a software error can affect every vehicle running the same code, potentially resulting in recalls involving thousands — or even millions — of vehicles worldwide.
Recent South African examples include Toyota and Lexus recalling 6,525 vehicles to correct a software fault that could cause the rear-view camera image to freeze, while Ford and Stellantis have also issued software-related recalls affecting infotainment, instrument clusters and driver information systems.
Physical-component and mechanical defects, however, remain the most common causes of vehicle recalls. Recent NCC notices have covered defective exhaust gas recirculation valves on Ford Rangers, cracked fuel pump housings on Hino trucks, suspension problems on Jeep Grand Cherokees and a recall of 25,729 Volkswagen Polo Vivo models due to a handbrake rivet defect.
One of the most high-profile recalls was that of the Ford Kuga in 2017, in which a faulty cooling system led to engine fires.
The most significant recall in automotive history remains the Takata airbag crisis, which has affected more than 100-million vehicles globally since 2013 including about 1.7-million vehicles in South Africa.
NCC spokesperson Phetho Ntaba believes the increasing number of recalls reflects greater transparency rather than declining vehicle quality. She says manufacturers are increasingly proactive in informing both regulators and consumers about safety defects, including on vehicles that are several years old, while meeting their legal obligation to repair defects free of charge.
Ntaba warns that “silent recalls”, where owners are not informed of defects, pose a serious safety risk because current and subsequent owners may remain unaware of potentially dangerous faults. She adds that the NCC has the authority to compel manufacturers to issue recalls and take enforcement action where necessary.
Toyota has experienced more recall campaigns in South Africa recently than any other automotive group, with campaigns affecting Toyota, Lexus and Hino vehicles. The faults have ranged from potentially dangerous mechanical problems involving airbags, fuel pumps and transmissions to software and electronic-control issues.
The existence of recall campaigns should not be interpreted as an indication of declining vehicle reliability, says Toyota corporate communications manager Refilwe Ramatlhodi Ndhlovu.
Higher standards, more advanced testing and deeper monitoring of vehicles in the field mean that manufacturers are identifying issues earlier
— Dudu Nxele, corporate communications manager of Ford SA
“We view recall and service campaigns as an essential part of our commitment to quality, durability and reliability (QDR), which are core principles of the Toyota and Lexus brands. By taking proactive action whenever improvements can be made, we help ensure that our vehicles continue to meet the high standards our customers expect.”
Ford, which has also experienced an above-average number of recalls lately, holds a similar view.
“Several factors are impacting recall numbers, and they’re largely positive ones,” according to Dudu Nxele, corporate communications manager of Ford South Africa.
“Higher standards, more advanced testing and deeper monitoring of vehicles in the field mean that manufacturers are identifying issues earlier and more consistently than in the past, including on legacy vehicles as new standards are applied retrospectively.
“Ford, like every major manufacturer, is placing a growing emphasis on proactively identifying and fixing potential concerns before they may affect customers, and we believe that is a big part of why we are seeing more recall activity industry-wide.”
Not everyone agrees that modern vehicles are more dependable, however.
Motoring journalist and mechanic Adam Ford says some modern cars suffer premature failures because manufacturers have replaced durable metal parts with plastic. Though this relates more to premature wear and tear than recalls related to safety or faulty new components, his Johannesburg workshop frequently replaces failed plastic components with aftermarket metal alternatives.
“Instead of making those components out of something like aluminium, they are made out of plastic, and I honestly believe they are designed to have a built-in obsolescence,” he says.
“There are lots of water pump failures where the plastic component fails, causes water leaks, and causes the car to overheat; they’re just under-engineered.”
He says some components can split and leak well before 100,000km, causing overheating and, in some cases, catastrophic engine damage. He has noted this happening particularly in luxury German brands, with Japanese cars less affected.
He also believes increasingly complex emissions systems have reduced long-term reliability.
“The biggest problems that we have are due to emission-related issues,” he says, pointing to diesel particulate filters (DPFs) and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems as common causes of faults on modern diesel vehicles as they age, particularly in South Africa because of fuel quality.
The contrasting views reflect the changing nature of vehicle reliability. Modern cars generally require less routine maintenance, are better protected against corrosion and are backed by much longer warranties and service plans than before. Rust-related recalls have become far less common than they were, for instance, due to much better corrosion protection in modern cars.
At the same time, the latest vehicles contain dozens of electronic control units and millions of lines of software code, while increasingly complex global supply chains create new opportunities for defects to emerge after vehicles reach customers.
Modern cars also have relatively shorter model lifespans, as manufacturers are in competition to regularly release newer vehicles to outdo their competitors. Shorter development times can mean some issues aren’t discovered until vehicles are already on the road.
There is independent evidence that more recalls do not necessarily mean modern cars are becoming less reliable, however. Breakdown statistics from Germany’s ADAC, Europe’s largest automobile association, confirms a steady increase in vehicle reliability over the past decade.
Data covering 158 vehicle ranges from 27 manufacturers found that the probability of a breakdown among five-year-old cars fell from 3.6% in 2015 to 2.1% in 2025. Among 10-year-old cars, the rate almost halved from 6.5% to 3.1%. ADAC concluded that modern vehicles are not more prone to breakdowns than their predecessors, despite the increasing complexity of their technology and the growing number of recalls.
Business Day
