Wendy Knowler is the Consumer Ninja
Oct 14, 2026 · 8 min · 6 segments
Stephen Grootes speaks to Consumer Ninja, Wendy Knowler, about South Africa’s rising vehicle recalls and why Chinese car brands are largely absent from official notices. The Money Show is a podcast…
Wendy KnowlerGuest
Stephen GrootesHost
I mean, every time I switch on the TV, I see the National Consumer Commission announcing another vehicle recall.
Wendy Nola is looking at this, which means someone is about to get pretty scared.
Um, what, so, so when we have so many of the legacy brands having recalls, what does that mean about how good they are compared to how good the newer Chinese brands are?
It doesn't necessarily mean that the, uh, The legacy brands are more problematic than the Chinese brands, which now make up 19% of all new vehicle sales in this country, by the way.
So you'd expect to see those names coming through because recalls are normal in all markets.
So I spent some time researching this issue, and the upshot was that the National Consumer Commission confirmed to me that one of the biggest Chinese brands in the country has effectively been running what they call silent recalls, including a break recall on more than almost 3,500 cars that was never announced to the public.
The commission didn't know about it, and the Consumer Protection Act requires all suppliers, manufacturers to report inform the commission of any recall so that the commission can then – that's how it lands up on your TV screen, Stephen.
The commission then puts out media statements far and wide and all the media tend to publish the recalls.
So, yeah, quite an interesting development there, I thought, that in some cases, one in particular, the manufacturer was choosing not to tell the NCC, the commission, about a recall.
I mean, every time I switch on the TV, I see the National Consumer Commission announcing another vehicle recall.
Wendy Nola is looking at this, which means someone is about to get pretty scared.
Um, what, so, so when we have so many of the legacy brands having recalls, what does that mean about how good they are compared to how good the newer Chinese brands are?
It doesn't necessarily mean that the, uh, The legacy brands are more problematic than the Chinese brands, which now make up 19% of all new vehicle sales in this country, by the way.
So you'd expect to see those names coming through because recalls are normal in all markets.
So I spent some time researching this issue, and the upshot was that the National Consumer Commission confirmed to me that one of the biggest Chinese brands in the country has effectively been running what they call silent recalls, including a break recall on more than almost 3,500 cars that was never announced to the public.
The commission didn't know about it, and the Consumer Protection Act requires all suppliers, manufacturers to report inform the commission of any recall so that the commission can then – that's how it lands up on your TV screen, Stephen.
The commission then puts out media statements far and wide and all the media tend to publish the recalls.
So, yeah, quite an interesting development there, I thought, that in some cases, one in particular, the manufacturer was choosing not to tell the NCC, the commission, about a recall.
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