All auto manufacturers agree that recalls are a pain. Manufacturers first have to track down all the vehicle owners, then those owners have to make appointments for service, and finally the manufacturers then have to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars to correct the problem. As annoying as a recall is for all parties involved, they're still needed to protect consumers. Whether it happens to a Ford, a Toyota, or even a Ferrari, all manufacturers have experienced a recall at some point in their history. So, when was the very first recall? It turns out that the very first recall happened long before the NTSB took control of recalls in 1966. It was actually in the early 1900s, when the Ford Model T was recalled. The real surprise is that the recall had nothing to do with the mechanical aspect of the vehicle. The engine didn’t blow up, the wheels didn’t fall off, there wasn’t any dangerous component to the recall. It was bugs……..yes, actual bugs. At some point, Henry Ford discovered that Cypress and Spanish moss were resources that could be used for seat padding. Unfortunately, the moss formed a small ecosystem for bugs to thrive. It wasn’t long before complaints of bug bites began rolling in. In fact, it became such an ordeal that Ford wound up recalling all the vehicles and replacing the seat padding. That first voluntary recall set the process in motion that continues today.
