The same recall, Britain and America

A manufacturer that recalls a model in Britain often recalls it in America too, and gives both authorities the same internal reference. This study matches the two registers on that reference alone, then asks which authority published first and by how many days. It claims nothing where the reference does not agree.

Also matched: 252 with a Canadian recall and 558 with a European Safety Gate alert. Of 719 matched recalls, 97 have both dates. Same-day filings: 4.

The latest 60 pairs

Method

DVSA's file carries a "Manufacturer Ref" column: the maker's own campaign code. NHTSA's bulk file carries the same thing as MFGCAMPNO, Transport Canada and the EU Safety Gate publish it too. Each code is stripped to letters and digits and compared; codes shorter than five characters are ignored because they collide. An American match is dropped when the American record plainly names a different maker. The American filing date is the date NHTSA received the report. Days are the American filing date minus the UK launch date, so a positive number means Britain published first. The join is rebuilt daily after the file is read. Full table: JSON.

Read from DVSA's bulk recalls file (RecallsFile.csv, 7 MB) on 4 September 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: DVSA, Check vehicle recalls. CarsMultiverse is an independent site, not an authority: the official notice is the one on the DVSA service.