WASHINGTON — Robo calls, social media ads, personal letters from the CEO and even a smartphone app are among ways auto companies are trying to convince more customers to get repairs done on cars recalled for serious safety defects.

The unusual steps were discussed at a forum Tuesday held by government safety regulators who are frustrated over what they say is an unacceptably low rate of recall repairs.

In some recalls for problems as serious as air bags that can spew shrapnel into drivers or fuel tanks that can rupture in a rear-end crash, completion rates are below 15 percent, six months or more after the recalls were announced.

Those recalls involve millions of vehicles, challenging automakers to find replacement parts and the cars’ owners. Regulators have fined automakers for dragging their feet, while concerned car owners are left waiting for repairs and worrying about their safety.

On average, automakers fix three out of four cars covered by a recall in 18 months. Mark Rosekind, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since December, wants to get that repair rate to 100 percent. So Tuesday he asked auto companies and safety advocates for their recommendations.

General Motors, fined $35 million by NHTSA for moving too slowly to recall about 2.6 million small cars with faulty ignition switches, was praised for using new methods to reach owners. The defective switches caused numerous crashes, and the company’s handling of the recall brought congressional hearings and a Justice Department investigation. So far, GM has agreed to pay compensation in at least 90 death cases and for 163 injured people.

GM said that as of early April, 70 percent of the U.S. small-car owners had been in for the service, 14 months after the recalls began.

GM started the recall slowly because its parts supplier had to equip factories to make switches for 2.6 million cars like the Chevrolet Cobalt.

BEYOND THE RECALL LETTER

But GM customer relations executive Julie Heisel said Tuesday that the company boosted the rate by going beyond the usual recall letter, adding emails, human and automated telephone calls and social media. For example, the company checked its database of small-car owners against people using Facebook, AOL and other social media sites, she said.

“When someone goes on one of those websites and there’s a match, we push an ad to that consumer” about the recalls, she said.

One Ford official said the company is developing an app to make it easier for cars to be repaired, while a Chevrolet dealer in New Jersey said he opened Saturdays for service and offered free oil changes.

Rosekind said he found the ideas offered at the forum “a good start,” and he wants to see more specific examples of actions taken by automakers, parts suppliers and dealers.

Reluctant owners are just part of the issue. In the past three years, 17 million vehicles have been recalled because air bag inflators from Takata Corp. of Japan can explode with too much force, blowing apart a metal canister.

Honda, Takata’s largest customer, said it has fixed 19 percent of the recalled inflators. Some of the recalls date to 2013. The issue: Takata must supply replacement parts to Honda and nine other automakers.

Meanwhile, Honda owners are being turned away by dealers, leaving some afraid to drive their vehicles. NHTSA, Takata and the auto industry are trying to pinpoint what’s causing the inflator problems.

Takata has been fined $14,000 per day by NHTSA since Feb. 20 for allegedly dumping documents on the agency without the legally required explanation of what’s in them. The fines are approaching $1 million.

ANOTHER BIG RECALL

In another big recall, Fiat Chrysler said recently it has fixed only a fraction of 1.56 million older Jeeps with gas tanks behind the rear axle. The tanks are vulnerable to puncture in a rear-end crash. The company is installing trailer hitches to protect the tanks in low-speed crashes.

NHTSA may reopen its investigation into the Jeeps.

“Here’s an opportunity to do whatever we need to do as aggressively as we need to do it to save lives,” Rosekind said after the gathering. Chrysler maintains the Jeeps are safe.

Rosekind is meeting with GM CEO Mary Barra and other CEOs in Detroit this week to discuss changing the industry’s safety culture, he said.

Copy the Story Link