Aston Martin recalls 75% of cars made since 2007

Counterfeit China material blamed; risk is that accelerator pedal arm may break

The recall includes all left-hand-drive Aston Martins built since November 2007.

National Transportation Safety Board
Recalls
Aston Martin

February 5, 2014 - 11:17 am ET -- UPDATED: 2/5/14 2:16 pm ET - adds details, background
DETROIT (Reuters) -- Aston Martin is recalling most of its sports cars built since late 2007 after discovering a Chinese sub-supplier was using counterfeit plastic material in a part supplied to the luxury sports carmaker.

Aston Martin, which is owned by Kuwaiti and private equity investors, is 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, affecting about 75 percent of all vehicles built in that period, a spokeswoman said.

The Vanquish is not affected.

Aston Martin found that Shenzhen Kexiang Mould Tool Co. Ltd., a Chinese subcontractor that molds the affected accelerator pedal arms, was using counterfeit plastic material supplied by Synthetic Plastic Raw Material Co. Ltd. of Dongguan, 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.

22 failed parts

Aston Martin spokeswoman Sarah Calam said there had been no reports of accidents or injuries related to the issue and 22 failed parts had been reported. She said the financial impact to the automaker was small, but did not quantify the total.

The cost of the recall is of great interest because Aston Martin has struggled to fund the development of a range of new vehicles while rivals like Bentley, owned by Volkswagen, and Rolls Royce, owned by BMW, have the ability to draw on the resources of their parent firms.

Aston Martin's owners include Italian private equity fund Investindustrial, Kuwait-based Adeem Investment and Prime Wagon. Germany's Daimler AG also has stake of less than 5 percent in the British automaker.

Of the Aston Martin cars affected in the recall, 7,271 are in Europe and 5,001 in the United States, Calam said. The company sells cars in 41 countries.

The latest recall replaces one announced last May and expanded in October.

Because of the issue, Aston Martin is now being supplied directly by a DuPont distributor.

Both Aston Martin and chemical company DuPont Co. sent people to China to directly supervise the production of all pedal arms, including verifying each bag of DuPont plastic material, Calam said.

Piracy problem

The automaker plans to shift production of the pedal arms from China to the United Kingdom "as soon as possible" in 2014, she said.

Last May, Aston Martin initially recalled 2,832 cars globally to replace the accelerator pedal arm after finding the affected part included material that did not meet specifications, Calam said.

After another arm broke that was not part of that group, the company expanded the recall to 16,825 cars and required the use of material made by DuPont.

When one of the replacement parts broke in December during installation by a U.S. dealer in Connecticut, however, Aston Martin froze the recall and found the counterfeit plastic material was being used in place of the DuPont material, she said.

The recall includes all the cars previously repaired, Calam said. Under the recall, Aston Martin will replace the accelerator pedal assemblies.

The manufacturer of the throttle pedal assembly that included the counterfeit material is Precision Varionic International Limited, according to the NHTSA documents.

The company's quality director, John Penman, did not immediately return calls and messages seeking comment.

It is not the first time DuPont has dealt with piracy in relation to China.

U.S. prosecutors indicted a California businessman in 2011 with stealing DuPont trade secrets in order to sell them to a Chinese company. That trial is ongoing.

Contact Automotive News

 

DAMN!!!

I'm now gonna have to hold off buying my Aston Martin until they get this **** fixed!

 

Quite scary........but it is not something that would suggest to people that Aston martin cars = Death Traps.

IMHO, at least Aston Martin moved in to announce the recall.

Good job Aston

 

Repost

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/car...thread-30.html

 

I missed it but then again I don't look search for the recall thread.
I also don't open the recall thread at or near the top of page 1.I'd rather read a thread title on the recall..
Why not post a thread on a vehicle recall while it's fresh and then merge to the recall thread after awhile?

 

unless I can get limited editiing ability to move threads in Car Chat, it will be forgotten. The Moderators have better things to do than orgainize Car Chat which I'm more than happy to do

 

I see,H.

 

what is the deal with the Chinese products. The achilles heal of many products

 

True.
Many parts on Japanese vehicles that were made by Japanese companies aren't anymore.China,India,Taiwan etc...
Went for a new over the range microwave oven.My last one lasted 13 years.
I asked about the life of a new microwave and was told 7 years or so because the magnetrons are no longer made in Japan.China now.

 

I was going to post this a couple of days ago, until I had a v8 moment and remembered you had a big 'ol recall thread already

My favorite AM DBS is affected

I don't know why you're not a moderator. You make tons of contributions here on car chat.

 

With all the problems using Chinese products the last 10 years, why do companies keep doing it? Drywall to childrens toys to auto parts....when will it stop?
I don't care how cheap they are I would never contract with any Chinese company for anything.

 

Just like any company in any part if the world, it's upto the buyer in looking for the quality and standard of which the products they want. If a company wants super high quality it will cost more than a cheaper one.

Example, Apple products have great build quality, they are built in China, it's Apple that sets a high quality standard and won't accept low quality products from the maker.

For this Aston Martin part, I'm wondering why this is made of plastic and not metal.

 

I work with China on a daily basis and it is hard to know what you are really getting.

At least no one died from this. So that is a good thing.

 

I bet Ford is high-five'ing each other in the board room for getting rid of that thing right now. Who ever bought Aston...what a sucker, they got left holding the bag.
You know Jag and Land Rover is next, just a matter of NTSB finding out the problem. Who ever bought those 2 I felt bad for them as well.

 

Ford still holds a minority share in Aston Martin. And actually it's sad they had to drop JLR considering new design language hit about the time they sold them off and now they are doing quite well. LR has a 4-8 month wait