Actually, recalls do not affect car sales, as they pertain to cars that have already been purchased. Consumer confidence in a a particular product might be darkened, and stock market prices slump, but it shouldn't yield bias against other products from the company.
The Detroit 3, in their cahoots with Big Oil, have hurt themselves by overproduction of SUV's (SPORT UTILITY vehicles, for soccer moms who must haul lumber up Devil's Mountain).
When C.A.F.E. standards increased and nearly killed the large station wagon, SUV's and minivans slipped through the loophole for trucks. So, up cranked the industrial machine to roll out as many lucrative models as possible.
In reality, if one really needs to drive a Sherman tank to the video store, one is better off moving to a different neighborhood.
During ancient times (the mid 1970's), the mideast fuel embargo turned American consumer demand toward smaller cars.
Detroit ignored them at first, until they felt the heat of competition from Japan, who said, "O.K. We make car for you! Chop Chop!"
Now we're in a similar situation, while Detroit's finding that the higher profit margins for SUV's over economy cars amount to zero, if zero SUV's are sold.
I'm strongly in support of raising the minimum mpg standard for ALL non-commercial vehicles to at least 36, then gradually up to 60.
The technology does exist to make happen, if about 4000 secret energy inventions were declassified by the U.S. Patent Office. .
