The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 established safety standards for motor vehicles. NHTSA was established by the Highway Safety Act of 1970 to carry out safety activities, which range from setting vehicle safety standards to working with states and local communities to reduce drunken driving. In 2000, in response to the highly publicized recall of Firestone tires due to serious safety defects, Members of Congress expressed concern about NHTSA’s oversight of vehicle and equipment safety. Subsequently, the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation—TREAD—Act was signed into law, which enhanced NHTSA’s authority to ensure that manufacturers provide the agency with early notification of potential safety defects in motor vehicles and equipment and that manufacturers quickly take actions to remedy them. NHTSA has two primary missions in its oversight of vehicle safety: Oversight of auto and equipment manufacturers’ compliance with safety standards established by the agency. NHTSA’s Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance (OVSC) is responsible for ensuring that new vehicles or equipment comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. By law, manufacturers must provide certification indicating that their vehicles and equipment meet these standards, a process also known as self- certification. OVSC also tests and inspects new vehicles to ensure that they meet these standards. Auto manufacturers are also expected to periodically inspect and test vehicles throughout their production period to ensure they comply with safety standards. Oversight of the identification and remedy of vehicle and equipment defects that could pose an unreasonable safety risk—safety defects. The agency’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) conducts investigations and identifies possible safety defects in vehicles or equipment that create an unreasonable safety risk and oversees manufacturer actions to remedy them. ODI identifies and reviews a variety of information for trends that could indicate the presence of a safety defect in a motor vehicle or piece of equipment. These information sources include consumer complaints submitted to the agency and information on fatalities, injuries, property damage claims, and consumer complaints collected by manufacturer and provided to the agency. Auto manufacturers also conduct their own investigations of potential safety defects in their motor vehicles. As part of its mission, NHTSA is responsible for overseeing two types of recalls. Compliance recalls are initiated when vehicles or vehicle equipment is determined to be noncompliant with applicable federal vehicle safety standards, as identified by NHTSA or a manufacturer. Compliance recalls have ranged from design issues with vehicle safety belts to improper placement of warning labels for airbags. From 2000 through 2009, compliance recalls accounted for about 18 percent of vehicle recalls. Safety defect recalls, which accounted for the remaining, majority share of vehicle recalls, are initiated when a defect in a vehicle or vehicle equipment creates an unreasonable safety risk, as determined by NHTSA or a manufacturer. For example, the potential for a steering column to break and suddenly cause partial or complete loss of vehicle control could represent a safety defect and warrant a safety defect recall. Although NHTSA also oversees compliance recalls, this report focuses on NHTSA’s oversight of safety defect recalls, which as previously discussed represent the majority of recalls overseen by the agency and are initiated when a defect poses an unreasonable risk to safety. In addition, we have limited our scope to safety defect recalls that have been initiated for passenger vehicles, including cars, pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles, large passenger vans, and minivans (NHTSA also oversees recalls for other vehicles, such as motorcycles, recreational vehicles, and commercial trucks). Finally, because the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General is examining NHTSA’s activities related to the investigation of potential safety defects in motor vehicles and equipment, we did not include safety defect investigations in our review. The auto safety defect recall process for motor vehicles is a concerted effort involving five stakeholders: auto manufacturers—businesses that manufacturer, assemble, or import NHTSA—the federal agency that oversees vehicle safety; franchised dealerships—businesses that sell or lease an auto manufacturer’s new vehicles; third-party data providers—businesses that collect and interpret data for clients and assist manufacturers in identifying postal addresses of vehicle owners with a vehicle affected by a recall; and vehicle owners—purchasers or lessors of a vehicle. As depicted in figure 1, these stakeholders, in particular NHTSA and auto manufacturers, engage in a number of steps during the safety defect recall process. According to NHTSA officials, since 2000 all safety defect recalls for passenger vehicles have been conducted voluntarily by manufacturers. Although some of these recalls were conducted based on NHTSA’s investigations of safety defects—known as influenced recalls—most were initiated by manufacturers without influence from agency investigations— known as voluntary, or “uninfluenced,” recalls (see fig. 2). For example, in April 2011, a manufacturer expanded the scope of vehicles included in one of the company’s safety defect recalls based, in part, on NHTSA’s own investigation of the defect. Moreover, NHTSA also has the authority to order a vehicle manufacturer to conduct a recall. According to NHTSA officials, the agency has not ordered any vehicle recalls since prior to 2000, and since the agency was established, it has ordered seven recalls for motor vehicles or equipment. As part of its oversight role, NHTSA is responsible for reviewing auto manufacturers’ planning and implementation of safety defect recalls to ensure compliance with legal requirements. To this end, the agency is responsible for reviewing, among other things, the manufacturer’s description of vehicles affected by a safety defect, actions the manufacturer plans take to remedy those vehicles through a recall, and notification letters the manufacturer plans to send to owners of affected vehicles. NHTSA also monitors the effectiveness of recall campaigns being conducted by manufacturers based, in large part, on a manufacturer’s quarterly reports showing the completion rate of a campaign. In addition, the agency provides information and guidance to the public on recalls, primarily through its Web site, www.safercar.gov. NHTSA and most other selected federal agencies we reviewed generally share similar authorities in recall processes, but the agencies’ authorities differ with regard to penalizing manufacturers and ordering recalls. For example, in contrast to NHTSA’s recall authority over motor vehicles, FDA’s recall authority over some products includes a mandatory requirement for manufacturers to recall a product regardless of any challenges a manufacturer may have to the order. Foreign agencies we reviewed also generally had similar authorities to NHTSA, with a few exceptions. For example, unlike NHTSA, officials from the Federal Motor Transport Authority—Germany’s agency that oversees vehicle safety—told us they can revoke the registration of vehicles with an outstanding safety recall. First, NHTSA is responsible for oversight of planning efforts by auto manufacturers for safety defect recalls. Specifically, NHTSA reviews an auto manufacturer’s required notification to the agency that describes a safety defect and the manufacturer’s plan to remedy it through a recall. The agency reviews several pieces of information that manufacturers must include in these notifications, including the following: a description of vehicles containing the safety defect, including the make, model year, and date the vehicles were manufactured; the number of vehicles potentially containing the defect and an estimate of what percentage actually have the defect; a chronology of principal events leading up to the manufacturer’s decision that there is a safety defect in the vehicle; and a description of the manufacturer’s plan to remedy the defect through a recall campaign. As stated earlier, though all recalls since 2000 have been either voluntary recalls or influenced recalls, NHTSA can also order a manufacturer to conduct a recall. Before NHTSA can order a recall, the agency must provide the manufacturer with an opportunity to respond to NHTSA’s initial decision. Prior to completion of the administrative process, the manufacturer may conduct the recall voluntarily. According to NHTSA officials, the agency tries to convince manufacturers to conduct influenced recalls based on NHTSA’s investigations rather attempt to prove the case for an ordered recall through court, which the officials said can take a long time and require substantial agency resources. NHTSA officials also told us that manufacturers generally conduct a recall voluntarily if the agency informs the manufacturer that it has decided that one is necessary because, according to the officials, a manufacturer does not want to risk receiving negative publicity in an argument against the agency’s decision. Similarly, some manufacturers told us that if NHTSA decides that a recall to remedy a safety defect is necessary, it is usually in a manufacturer’s best interest to conduct one even if the manufacturer believes it is not necessary due to the risk of negative publicity and consumer opinion. Second, NHTSA oversees a manufacturer’s implementation of a safety defect recall. Among other things, this includes reviewing the manufacturer’s letter to vehicle owners notifying them of the safety defect and the manufacturer’s recall to remedy it. In particular, NHTSA reviews each manufacturer’s draft recall notification letter and envelope to ensure that it includes several pieces of required information about the safety defect, meets the legal requirement to mail the initial notification via first class postage, and adequately motivates owners to make their vehicles available for remedy work.