Recall Severity

What It Means

Recall Severity is the single heaviest-weighted factor in the RecallCheck Safety Score, contributing 40 percent of the total. It is calculated from the count and category of NHTSA recall campaigns affecting a specific make/model/year combination, with each campaign weighted by the component category pulled from the NHTSA Recalls API. Safety-critical components receive the highest weight: airbags (which have historical links to over 27 Takata-related fatalities), brakes, steering, fuel system, wheels and tires, and electrical systems that can cause fires. Lower-weight categories include seat belts (which rarely fail catastrophically), interior trim, child restraints in vehicles not designed for family use, lighting, and visibility. Open/unremedied recalls are weighted significantly higher than closed/completed recalls, because an active recall represents current unrepaired risk to the specific vehicle. Multiple recalls affecting the same component category are not simply summed, the algorithm applies a diminishing marginal weight after the third recall in any category, to prevent vehicles with many small software-calibration recalls from being over-penalized relative to vehicles with a single catastrophic defect. For reference, the average U.S. vehicle has 4 to 6 recall campaigns over a typical 10 to 15-year service life. Vehicles with zero recalls during their model year are extremely rare and typically represent low-volume specialty vehicles with short production runs. At the other extreme, the Chrysler PT Cruiser, various Ford Explorer years, and multiple Takata-airbag-affected Honda models have 20 or more recall campaigns across their lifetime. A vehicle with one minor recall typically scores an A in Recall Severity (90+ on the 0-100 subscale), while a vehicle with multiple unrepaired airbag or fuel system recalls typically scores an F (below 60).

Recall Severity is one of the NHTSA or vehicle-safety concepts that recurs across RecallIndex. The definition above is the technical answer; below is how the concept connects to the NHTSA data that drives every vehicle page on the site.

In the RecallIndex Safety Score, this concept feeds one of the four factor weights — recall severity (40 percent), complaint frequency (30 percent), crash and fire reports (20 percent), or trend direction (10 percent). The methodology page on the site walks through every input in detail.

Frequently Asked Questions