Aston Martin has issued a recall for all LHD models built since November 2007, plus all RHD models built since May 2012, a total of 17,590 cars. Affected cars will have to return to the dealer to have the throttle pedal replaced and the “foot well scuff plate adjusted”.
The throttle pedal needs to be replaced because Aston Martin has found out that the Chinese supplier of this part, Shenzhen Kexiang Mould Tool Co Limited, “was using counterfeit plastic material” for the pedal. Which could result in the pedal arm breaking (see above photo), creating the risk of a crash.
Counterfeit plastic? What’s that? Well, it probably means that the Chinese manufacturer of the pedals has changed to a plastic type other than (and inferior to) the specification that was agreed upon initially.
Interestingly, this is the third recall for the same problem:
RA-03-0016
The first recall for the throttle pedal was on May 29, 2013. This recall include all DB9, Virage, V8 Vantage, V12 Vantage, and Rapide vehicles manufactured from May 14, 2012, through April 10, 2013.
This recall included my Cobalt Blue V12 Vantage Roadster, as it was produced in November 2013. So I brought it to the dealership and had the pedal replaced.
RA-03-0016V2
Five months later, on October 24, 2013, the RA-03-0016 was extended into RA-03-0016V2, to include more cars, specifying a list of VIN numbers.
This time, the VIN numbers of both my Fire Red V12 Vantage and the blue Roadster were included, so off to the garage I went, to have the pedals on both cars replaced.
RA-03-0017
Fast forward three months, to January 21, 2014 and there it is, the third recall for the throttle pedal problem. Now including 17,590 Aston Martins, 75% of all cars built since November 2007.
And yes, again including Blue and Red 🙁
Three recalls for the same problem?
So what happened here? Why three recalls for the same issue, in some cases (like for my blue one) replacing the same pedal three times?
I can, somewhat, understand the 2nd recall. Maybe after the first recall, Aston Martin found out the problem was bigger than they estimated initially and extended the list of cars that needed to have the pedal replaced. But why would some cars need to have it replaced again? Does that mean the first replacement part wasn’t up-to-par either?
And now the 3rd recall, again extending the range of cars and again replacing the pedal for cars that already had it replaced twice. So can we now trust this pedal to be of the correct plastic material? Did Aston Martin now switch manufacturers for this part?
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