With General Motors chief executive officer Mary Barra about to face Congressional hearings about the automaker’s handling of recalls, analysts from both AutoTrader.com and iSeeCars.com each conducted investigations to gauge what kind of impact these kinds of campaigns are having.

First, the AutoTrader.com team wanted to see how or if the recent high profile recalls have impacted consumer perception. More specifically, the site conducted a quick poll consisting of a single question survey on AutoTrader.com from March 21 through March 27 to see if the recalls were causing shoppers to lose confidence in the industry’s ability to ensure safe vehicles.

Among those who participated and were aware of the recall:

• 53 percent of AutoTrader.com visitors polled said that they are less confident in the ability of the automotive industry to ensure safe vehicles.

• 39 percent of AutoTrader.com visitors polled said that the recalls have had no effect on their confidence in the automotive industry to ensure safe vehicles.

• 8 percent of AutoTrader.com visitors polled said that they are more confident in the ability of the automotive industry to ensure safe vehicles.

“With so much news circulating around a few big recalls, it makes sense that over 50 percent of shoppers have less confidence right now in the automotive industry’s ability to ensure safe vehicles,” said Mark Strand, market intelligence manager at AutoTrader.com.

“However, history suggests that consumers have a short memory when it comes to recalls and do not seem to hold on to negative perceptions that would influence future purchases of a particular brand,” Strand continued.

Meanwhile, analysts from iSeeCars.com took a long-term view of the issue, too, when they did an extensive study this week.

For a wide array of automakers, the site analyzed recall data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and compared it to sales data for the same period between 1980 and 2013.

“Factoring in the manufacturer’s sales allowed us to make an apples to apples comparison across larger and smaller manufacturers and to ensure a fair assessment for both,” iSeeCars.com analysts said.

“Just to clarify, when the rate says 0.38, this means that for every 100 cars sold, 38 were recalled,” they went on to explain.

The chart below tracked the findings: