A series of car recalls to hit the automotive industry thisspring, including investigations of models created by Ford,Chrysler, Chevrolet and Toyota, is unlikely to impactauto manufacturer's insurance rates.

“Recall coverage is available, but it's not widely purchased byany major auto manufacturer,” says Bob Hartwig, president of theInsurance Information Institute (III). “The auto industry has acertain number of recalls every year and risk management procedures to deal withthem, so as long as they don't involve an inordinate amount ofvehicles or injuries this wouldn't materially influence insuranceprograms.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reportsaround 600 recalls annually, but many of those events never makethe news because car makers try to reverse the issues before theybecome public relations disasters.

“If the fault is fixed before any injuries to customers occur,then [the recall] is unlikely to greatly affect the pricing on anyrelevant product liability policies,” says Mark Colgate, head ofproduct recall at independent broker R.K. Harrison. “What itmay do is further encourage the car manufacturers to push moreliability or responsibility on to their parts suppliers toindemnify them for any fault with the products they supply.”

The NHTSA is examining complaints of Ford Super Duty pickuptrucks with failed steering gear boxes that led to a loss ofsteering control. Although the malfunction caused to confirmedinjuries, Ford recalled about 340,000 trucks from the year2008.

Chrysler called for a return of more than 300,000 JeepCherokees, Commanders and Wranglers as well as Dodge Ram trucks.The NHTSA found that the Jeeps, produced between 2005- 2010, wereprone to an electrical failure that caused the transfer to shift onits own into neutral and allow the vehicles to roll away. The 2013Dodge Rams received reports of dysfunctional windshielddefrosters.

Also in May, around 100,000 Chevrolet Corvettes were the subjectof 30 NHTSA complains regarding defective low-beam headlights thatendangered night drivers but caused no injuries.

In April, Toyota recalled 1.7 million Corola, Matrix and Tundramodels worldwide; last year it recalled 2.5 million vehicles in theU.S. for potential fire risk and went through a $1.1 billionsettlement for unintended acceleration in its Lexus cars.

Though recalls due to malfunctions and defects are a risk auto innovators take everyyear, companies have been known to undervalue human safety in orderto protect their bottom lines from the pricey procedure. In the1970s, for example, Ford came under fire for staying silent aboutthe known deadly trap of its Pinto models: they burst into flamewhen impacted in an accident.

“Reputation is vital to all car manufacturers and they cannotafford to have any potential products that could cause an injury toa customer to continue to be sold in the marketplace,” saysColgate. “Consequently car manufacturers are likely to recallany faulty product but then try to offset the cost of the recall bypushing the cost of that recall onto the supplier of the defectivepart.”