Alfa Romeo Recall

[colcol]

 Now that i have your attention, there was an article in Saturday's Age Drive section on recalls in 2011,
1 Honda 113,829,
2 Holden 51,542,
3 Mazda 40,765,
4 Toyota 30,030,
5 Ford 17,139,
6 Mitsubishi 12,188,
7 Mercedes Benz 11,281,
8 Peugeot 7,739,
9 Suzuki 5,486,
10 Volvo 4,706,
So there, no Alfa Romeo's in the top 10, they obviously don't sell enough cars to make the top 10, but some of the Makes that were recalled, the owners will tell how wonderfully relable and fabulous they are, but the recall notice will tell you otherwise, Colin.

[Duk]

So there, no Alfa Romeo's in the top 10, they obviously don't sell enough cars to make the top 10, but some of the Makes that were recalled, the owners will tell how wonderfully relable and fabulous they are, but the recall notice will tell you otherwise, Colin.

Without putting up specifics about what the recalls were, you can assume anything about what happened.
Statistics like that are potentially misleading. The recalls might have been for trivial things and there is no mention that they effected the reliability of the cars.

"Lies. damn lies and statistic."

[colcol]

As the report said, they don't recall them for dodgy trim on the cup holders, these are things that can affect safety and reliability, and are recalled so they don't get class actions in the courts, Colin.

[festy]

There have been no recalls in Australia for Alfa Romeos in the last 12 months.
The last one was 2 years ago, and was for the 147's tyres cracking (so not really an Alfa fault, except they specified those tyres).

Compared to BMW who have 2 already for 2012, both mention "possibly resulting in fire"

Most of Holden's recent recalls are related to fuel hose replacement in their diesel models, that and sunroofs falling out because their glue wasn't strong enough

[festy]

As the report said, they don't recall them for dodgy trim on the cup holders, these are things that can affect safety and reliability, and are recalled so they don't get class actions in the courts, Colin.

I've seen a few ADR related recalls (like to fit missing/incorrect compliance stickers etc) but how about for a TV that stays on when you get a phone call?

2005 Range Rover vehicles fitted with television
The television may continue to operate if the telephone is used while the vehicle is stationary. The television operation could distract the driver and is a breach of the ADRs.

[colcol]

But, Alfa Romeo Australia pre 1992, before Ateco, should have recalled all Alfasud's, Alfetta's, 90's, Guillietta's and 75's to fix faulty handbrakes, some of them worked, some didn't, with disasterous results, there is a standard that state 'x' amount are faulty per hundred, then the whole lot have to be recalled, with our Sud, it never had a handbrake from day 1, i don't know how it ever passed a roadworthy, no one seemed to know how to fix it, it had the same brakes on the front that the rear wheel drive Alfa's had on the back, the calipers were made in ......GERMANY, German reliability?, not on this product anyway, Colin.

[Duk]

the calipers were made in ......GERMANY, German reliability?, not on this product anyway, Colin.

Probably made by the same people who supply Bosch's plastics and rubbers for their electrical plugs and sealing boots 

[vin sharp]

Strange how some people veiw 'reliability'.
I knew a bloke years back who had a spare parts business for European cars (BMW, Volvo, VW,etc, occassionaly a bit of Alfa).
In any case for some reason he noticed also got a number of enquiries for Toyota as well, maybe because there's lots of 'em out there, so he started dealing in Toyota as well.
The upshoot of all this he said was the attitude of people buying spares for European cars was generally "bloody Euro...whatever....costing money to fix, bla bla"   while Toyota owners were "so reliable, worth spending money on , never breaks down" in repair denial despite the fact that they were buying things to fix it.....   Apparently various  Toyota models certainly had their issues in various areas just like most other cars. Having had a couple of early Landcruisers in the family years ago, and the issues we had with them (some of which continue into recent models!) These old 'Cruisers were "legends" so I can only assume that Land Rovers of the time were even more problematic....
A neighbour of our a few years back bought a new Toyota Prado which had a dramatic rise in fuel consumption at aroud 150,000km, the dealer told them this was normal for an engine beyond this distance and a new engine was the only solution. So they stumped up $14,500 to have a new engine fitted by the dealer because the car was always so reliable and re-sale value of Toyotas is so good. I did a quick check on market value at the time and it was around 20/22k for that model...then they traded it in (for less than what the engine cost) on a new one about 1 year later still convinced that it was all a great deal.....

[Duk]

Strange how some people veiw 'reliability'.
A neighbour of our a few years back bought a new Toyota Prado which had a dramatic rise in fuel consumption at aroud 150,000km, the dealer told them this was normal for an engine beyond this distance and a new engine was the only solution.

Regardless of the brand of car, if a dealer told me that, I'd be going somewhere else! 'cause that is absolute bullsh!t!
An ex-dealer mechanic I sort of know (he's a family member's friend) told me an absolute shocker about 1 of the local dealers he quit working for, and it wasn't a 1 off sort of thing either.

2 things I've noticed about having 3 Japanese (well, 1 Ford Laser TX3 with a Mazda turbo engine transplant) cars from the late 80's and early 90s (Mazda/Ford, Toyota and Niassan) and 4 Italian cars (only the 1990 model 75 is/was computer controlled, so these comparisons are mainly based on it), is that Japanese electrics are more reliable and long term durable. That's just a generic statement I know, but when you transplant and swap engines and when you do engine management system conversions, you start to notice a few things.
Things like the wiring looms (engine and body looms) in the Japanese cars are much better integrated into the chassis's and engine's layout.
They clip and hold the wiring looms much better to the body and the engine.
They insulated and protected the looms better.
The plugs and boots haven't turned to 'week old dog sh!t in the sun' after 15 years.
The gauge of the wiring seems to be more appropriate.
Switches have a much better feel and do seem to last longer.

[1750GT]

Well Colcol I thought you may have been telling some bulltish about Alfa's recent recall record. So mistrusting me did a google search   and not only were you and festy spot on but under the google search "Alfa romeo recalls" one of the articles that came up on the google list (position four no less) was your first post under this topic Colcol. So your even a goggle expert!

Are you even putting yourself on search engines or is this just a coincidence Colcol?

With respect to the spectacular Alfa record, I think your suggestion that sales would have something to do with it is spot on, but I have had some Alfa owners say that they feel like the cars being recalled every time they take their Alfa to the mechanics? (and please no hate mail, I love Alfa's and yes I am yoking - but it is true!). 

1750GT

[colcol]

Col Col on a search engine?, if i knew what that meant, i could comment on it, having your car recalled is not the end of the world, it shows that car manufacturers are taking safety and reliability problems seriously, and don't want to end up in court with a class action against them, this is what nearly sunk Mitsubishi, they had trucks which had serious safety issues that had resulted in over 100 deaths, and rather than rectifying it, for 20 years they tried to cover it up, the upshot being, if there was a class action that went against them, the financial penalty would have sunk them, in America the Ford Pinto should have been recalled to fit a $1 shield for the fuel tank, so when it was rear ended the tank wouldn't get punctured, the millions of dollars required to recall it was too great for Ford, so Ford decided it was cheaper to keep paying out the lawsuits, the Ford Pinto, 'the barbeque that seats four', Colin.

[colcol]

Tonight on the news, it was announced that Rolls Royce are recalling cars in Australia, due to issues with brakes and under bonnet fires, German and British Quality to the max!, Colin.

[shiny_car]

Tonight on the news, it was announced that Rolls Royce are recalling cars in Australia, due to issues with brakes and under bonnet fires, German and British Quality to the max!, Colin.

More detail: http://theage.drive.com.au/motor-news/100-million-rollsroyce-recall-20120425-1xkmq.html 

[Craig_m67]

Snip
Most of Holden's recent recalls are related to fuel hose replacement in their diesel models, that and ".....
/Snip

Sooo, that'd be a FIAT power train engine
... the same one(s) found in an Alfa (SAAB, GM/Vaxhaul, Chrysler?, yada yada)

[colcol]

It would be a Fiat designed motor and made in Korea under licence, would be a supplier problem, selling substandard hoses, and sometimes the clips are a problem too, my first car was recalled due to faulty petrol pipe clips, they were a one use only, crimp type clip, but people were reusing them with disasterous results, fix was a hose clamp clip that was reusable, [like the type on my 33], Colin.