Lack of car recalls, a result of lower quality standards, experts say

Sandy Darmosumarto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

There has never been a direct mass recall of cars from the market in this country due to defects, said Fransiscus Soeseno, secretary general of the Association of Indonesian Automotive Industries (GAIKINDO).

This statistic, however, as positive as it might seem, raises concerns for automotive consumers, especially in light of recent recalls by Nissan Motor Corporate Limited of Japan and Honda Motor Co. in North America of some of their models.

Such considerations to recall defective and/or unsafe models are adopted slowly by local manufacturers such as Nissan Motor Distributor Indonesia, which will possibly recall 600 units of its X-Trail model and 60 Sentra or Sunny cars due to defects in the engine's cam and crank angle sensors.

As for Honda Prospect Motor of Indonesia, it has chosen not to recall the CR-V, Acura sedans, Odyssey, or Accord sedan and coupe that have already been sold because it claims the defects are caused by the bad habits of drivers found only in North America.

"Most recalls are voluntarily done by the industry itself and on an individual basis. Mechanical problems are mostly solved behind closed doors between dealers and customers affected," said Soeseno on Thursday. The reason why car manufacturers prefer to solve problems on a personal basis compared to doing a mass recall is because "a mass recall significantly downgrades the brand image."

Sudaryatmo, a lawyer with the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) stated on Thursday that in many cases the industry had failed to warn customers of defects. Moreover, they fail to properly treat the problem unless the customers demand it.

Under Law No.8/1999 on consumer protection, the government ordered industry not to produce defective products and must recall products from the market if they are found defective.

Officials from the Ministry of Trade and Industry were not available for comments.

"The lack of a standardized mass recall system in Indonesia may be attributed to consumers' unwillingness to complain about small problems," commented Sudaryatmo. He stated that the responsibility to make consumers aware of their full right to proper treatment by producers should be with the government, producers and consumers themselves.

"Consumer education needs to be formally put into academic curriculums to awareness to be raised about consumers' rights. Additionally, we need to build a community of experts and academia to educate consumers, and form an independent body to do comparative physical testing of models," Sudaryatmo said. "So far, the ministry has only done comparative physical testing for motorcycles."

Soeseno prefers that the body be a government one, not from the industry itself such as a community composed of car dealers. He also claims that in general, the quality standards of cars entering the country is similar to that found abroad.

Sudaryatmo also commented on industry standards, stating that in Indonesia a double standard is often at work. That is, local brand names adopt a different (lower) standard of quality vis a vis that of other countries.

He said that the Ministry of Trade and Industry is weak in outlining the required standards, and overseeing that the automobile industry enforces it. "As a result, Indonesia is prone to receiving imported cars that do not pass the standards in other countries."

The YLKI advocate said that, in general, there needs to be concrete governmental pre-market control and recall mechanism for all cars entering and/or sold in the country.

In conjunction with this, Soeseno noted the presence of loopholes in pre-market control. He stated that "the ministry of industry and trade does pre-market testing for both locally assembled and imported models."

"For the locally assembled models, testing needs to be executed before selling them. Locally assembled vehicles need to pass physical tests prior to entering the market," said Soeseno. Completely built-up (CBU) units need to be tested only if the model is different than that of the locally assembled ones. If the imported CBU units are of the same model, then no testing should be required.

Additionally, the GAIKINDO secretary general said that "the government tests models only if there are at least 10 units being marketed." Otherwise, they are put in the market without passing any test.

In the end, he lamented the careless and easy-going culture of Indonesian people, say that may contribute to the different standard of services relative to other countries.

When asked about Nissan Motor Distributor Indonesia's lack of quick response to its Japanese and Singaporean counterparts, Soeseno stated that a few factors may have contributed to it. "(Nissan) may not have received the information from its headquarters in Japan. Additionally, Nissan may have received the news late, or is still verifying the technical details."

Soeseno also said that "industrial base in each market is different. Defects and mechanical troubles are usually a regional problem."