Aston Martin recalls 75% of cars made since 2007
Aston Martin, which is owned by Kuwaiti and private equity investors, is recalling 17,590 cars, including all of its left-hand-drive models built since November 2007 and all right-hand-drive models built since May 2012, affecting about 75 percent of all vehicles built in that period, a spokeswoman said.
The Vanquish is not affected.
Aston Martin found that Shenzhen Kexiang Mould Tool Co. Ltd., a Chinese subcontractor that molds the affected accelerator pedal arms, was using counterfeit plastic material supplied by Synthetic Plastic Raw Material Co. Ltd. of Dongguan, according to documents filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The cars are being recalled from model years 2008 through 2014 because the accelerator pedal arm may break, increasing the risk of a crash, according to the NHTSA documents. The engine would return to idle and the driver would be unable to maintain or increase speed, according to the documents.
22 failed parts
Aston Martin spokeswoman Sarah Calam said there had been no reports of accidents or injuries related to the issue and 22 failed parts had been reported. She said the financial impact to the automaker was small, but did not quantify the total.
The cost of the recall is of great interest because Aston Martin has struggled to fund the development of a range of new vehicles while rivals like Bentley, owned by Volkswagen, and Rolls Royce, owned by BMW, have the ability to draw on the resources of their parent firms.
Aston Martin's owners include Italian private equity fund Investindustrial, Kuwait-based Adeem Investment and Prime Wagon. Germany's Daimler AG also has stake of less than 5 percent in the British automaker.
Of the Aston Martin cars affected in the recall, 7,271 are in Europe and 5,001 in the United States, Calam said. The company sells cars in 41 countries.
The latest recall replaces one announced last May and expanded in October.
Because of the issue, Aston Martin is now being supplied directly by a DuPont distributor.
Both Aston Martin and chemical company DuPont Co. sent people to China to directly supervise the production of all pedal arms, including verifying each bag of DuPont plastic material, Calam said. AutoNews/Reuters