More than quarter of taxi or rideshare vehicles in 16 markets may have unfixed recall, says Carfax

Nearly 27% of taxi and/or rideshare vehicles in a Carfax analysis of more than 437,000 vehicles across 16 major U.S. cities had at least one unfixed recall, the company said Monday.

While those numbers are certainly alarming, there are solutions for consumers — and potential service opportunities for dealers.

Carfax examined 437,583 VINs representing taxi and/or rideshare vehicles in 16 markets.

It found that 26.67% had unfixed recalls. And some combinations of city/vehicle use types had much higher numbers.

For example, 38.7% of taxis in New York City had unfixed recalls. The same was true for 37.5% of taxis in Seattle, the Carfax data shows.

“If you’re paying for a ride, you should be able to count on the vehicle being safe, too, but our data shows that isn’t always the case,” said Randall Orr, who is vice president of data products and analytics at Carfax, in a news release.

“The good news is checking for an open recall is free at carfax.com/recall and getting it fixed is free,” Orr said. “It’s a simple but important step toward creating a safer ride.”

The VINs were either provided by city/state officials or Carfax obtained them through public records request or open-data portals. The company checked for open recalls through the Vehicle Research Search Service, which is a joint venture Carfax conducts with the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.

The national average for unfixed or open recalls was 20%. Several city and taxi/rideshare combinations in the study fell well below that average, including taxis in Baltimore (4.9%), taxis in Boston (9.24%) and taxis in Los Angeles (11.4%).

Citing the Transportation Alliance, a trade group for taxi fleets, Carfax did point out that certain conditions can prevent taxi and rideshare drivers from having recall repair work done.

Elena Sierra, executive director of the Transportation Alliance, noted in the release: “It’s important to recognize that not all recalls present the same level of safety risk. They range from software updates and labeling corrections to more significant mechanical issues.”

For more information, see the chart below provided by Carfax.