Spending more money on a car isn’t a guarantee of impeccable quality, as the latest trouble from Aston Martin demonstrates.
According to The New York Times, Aston will recall about 5,000 cars after discovering that a Chinese supplier used substandard material for replacement gas-pedal arms.
Obviously, a firm connection between the driver’s foot and some of the most potent production engines in the world is important. Aston originally issued a smaller recall for the part, but when a dealer reported that a replacement arm also broke, it investigated the matter further.
Aston came to the conclusion that a Chinese supplier was using “counterfeit material,” and decided to completely re-do the recall.
What started as a recall of 689 vehicles in the United States now includes 5,0001 – and 17,590 vehicles worldwide. The recall includes nearly every Aston Martin made since 2008, including the DB9, DBS, Virage, and most versions of the Rapide and Vantage.
DuPont, the supplier of the correct material, will ship it to the factory and oversee production of new pedal arms alongside representatives from Aston.
The carmaker also plans to move production of the part from China to the U.K. to avoid this problem in the future.
It just goes to show how complex cars – and the process of manufacturing them – are. All of the performance of an Aston Martin is useless if the gas pedal breaks.
