Your $200K Aston Martin Just Got Recalled for Using Chinese-Made Knockoff Part

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/02/06/aston_martin_recalls_thousands_of_cars_because_of_chinese_made_counterfeit.html



Your $200K Aston Martin Just Got Recalled for Using Chinese-Made Knockoff Part
By Elliot Hannon
Feb. 6 2014 7:37 PM

If you’re in the market for an Aston Martin, you’re probably not big on buying cheap Chinese knockoffs—of anything. But, it turns out that’s exactly what more than 17,000 luxury car owners got when they ponied up the big bucks for the British luxury sports car. On Wednesday, Aston Martin said it was recalling 17,590 cars, “including all of its left-hand drive models built since November 2007 and all right-hand drive models built since May 2012,” Reuters reports.

What happened? Well, if you do some window shopping at the Aston Martin website this is what you get (and expect): “The finest materials are used to create a driver and passenger environment of exquisite finesse, all created by expert craftsman,” the site says of its Vantage model. Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been the case as the carmaker discovered a Chinese subcontractor was supplying the company with counterfeit plastic. Here’s more via Reuters:

Aston Martin found that Shenzhen Kexiang Mould Tool Co Limited, a Chinese subcontractor that moulds the affected accelerator pedal arms, was using counterfeit DuPont plastic material, according to documents filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration…The cars are being recalled from model years 2008 through 2014 because the accelerator pedal arm may break, increasing the risk of a crash, according to the NHTSA documents. The engine would return to idle and the driver would be unable to maintain or increase speed, according to the documents.

The company first issued a recall on a smaller number of its vehicles last year, but expanded the recall when the problem appeared in different models. "The automaker plans to shift production of the pedal arms from China to the United Kingdom 'as soon as possible' in 2014," an Aston Martin spokeswoman told Reuters.