Dubai: Car companies are recalling models one after the other. But is this stopping people from buying cars?
"Absolutely, 100 per cent," Samer Ashour, a Dubai-based Jordanian said.
"I will exclude all these brands [that have recalled cars] from my list, if I buy a car."
Ashour, a 30-year-old civil engineer, said that safety and durability were his prime concerns, when he bought a car.
"I want the car to serve me for around five years, if I take care of the car, that is," he said.
And even if readers have good experiences with particular models, a recall can stop them from buying from the marque.
Mary Blackwell, a Dubai-based manager, said she was happy that she recently sold a car from one of the companies that issued recalls.
"I believe it was one of the best cars I have ever had, but I feel very pleased that I now have a car [from a European car-maker] that is absolutely fine and is not being recalled," she said.
Blackwell felt that it would take the companies some time to fix the problems with the models in question, but was more concerned about how car parts for a car could be manufactured in more than one country.
"These days car parts are made all over the world, so even though I have a European car, it may have parts that were probably made along with the parts for these recalled cars!"
Having faced problems with acceleration in a car she drove in the UK, Blackwell felt that such problems could lead to extremely frightening experiences for motorists.
But 29-year-old Shams Aziz did not see the recalls affecting car choices. Planning to buy a car from one of the car-makers who have recalled some of their models, Aziz said that people were well-aware of the good and the bad in every model.
He said: "My friend went for [one of the recalled cars]. We have read about recalls in the newspapers, but that doesn't really matter. Every car could have some problem or the other. One might have problems with the airconditioning system, another's engine might start making some noise after a few years. That's normal and everybody knows about them. People don't stop buying [cars from the companies] altogether."
