Confusion reigns over recalls for vehicles bought through parallel importers
Confusion over who is responsible for alerting owners of parallel imported cars about recalls means vehicles with potentially deadly defects are being driven on Hong Kong roads.
The Transport Department, which has the only fully comprehensive database of car ownership in Hong Kong, contacts owners about recalls only if car manufacturers ask it to do so.
Of the 35 vehicle recalls last year, car companies asked the department to contact owners in only six cases.
One car owner, Harry O'Neill, who bought his Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG through a parallel importer, narrowly escaped an accident last month when the brakes failed on his car - a model which had been subject to a worldwide recall for a braking problem in 2005.
His car had not been recalled or repaired because he had purchased it through a parallel importer which said it had never been informed of the recall.
'It's a performance car, it's designed to be driven fast. Luckily for me, I wasn't driving fast at the time and was able to eventually bring the car to a halt using the gears,' said Mr O'Neill, a financial services industry headhunter.
