An average of 10 to 15 product recalls per week are made on vehicles by Bermuda's biggest auto dealer.

That is according to Jonathan Brewin, president, and Deborah Burgess, warranty administrator at HWP Group, who revealed that 350 product recalls on cars and bikes were made so far during the 26 weeks of this year across the board of manufacturers.

But Mr. Brewin said that is in line with the industry and stressed the importance of customers doing business with an authorised auto dealer to ensure they receive the best after-sales service.

Equally, he said it was vital for a dealership, such as HWP, to maintain a good relationship with the manufacturer in order to be able to provide the client with the required services, including notification on product recalls.

On Friday, Toyota announced it would recall 270,000 cars worldwide - including 138,000 vehicles in the US - due to an engine fault.

"The key thing is maintaining that relationship with the manufacturers so that we are informed as swiftly as possible to be able to call the clients in and do the work and send them back more confident," said Mr. Brewin.

"The Toyota experience earlier in the year with the accelerators was obviously blown up because of the nature of the automotive industry, but the fact is that for the past 10 to 15 years they have been doing recalls."

Earlier this year, HWP had to recall 465 Honda models due to a faulty window switch which has the potential to cause a fire when wet, as reported in The Royal Gazette in March, with 25 percent being repaired and the rest of the cases being called up as soon as the parts arrive.

The auto dealer receives regular email updates from the likes of Daihatsu, Honda and Mitsubishi on potential problems with particular models sold in the market and then contacts the customers affected to ask them to come in to have their vehicles fixed.

On the flipside, HWP flags up any issues that it cannot resolve, with Ms Burgess registering it and the company contacting the manufacturer to get it sorted out.

Lenny Henderson, technical trainer in the after sales division of HWP, who trains apprentices and mechanics, carries out diagnosis of different brands of vehicles on a daily basis, ranging from mechanics to air conditioning, and most recently identifying some issues with the roof system of the Volkswagen Eos using a set of scanning tools.

With the more sophisticated models, he will hook up a diagnostic laptop to connect with manufacturers such as Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, Germany via the internet, who in turn are able to use a software patch to fine tune the car's system and make it work more effectively.

Recently Mr. Henderson was running a pre-delivery inspection of a brand new Hyundai vehicle when a technician brought to his attention that the air conditioning system was not working. He spent a week looking into the problem and eventually found that a connection was not pushed in fully and subsequently reported the matter to the manufacturer's factory in Korea. Hyundai came back to him to thank him for his input and said that as a result it had instigated training to make the production line workers aware of the issue.

"Personally, for me to get that sort of feedback from the manufacturer was fantastic," he said.

Some manufacturers have even accepted vehicles whose warranty had expired due to their strong relationship with HWP, including a model of Daihatsu where the steering column needed to be changed out and the manufacturer agreed to supply the parts and labour for free.

However one of the biggest challenges faced by the industry is customers buying cars or bikes from outfits which do not offer after-sales support and the likes of HWP only stock the parts for the vehicles they bring in and do not necessarily have the ones for those purchased elsewhere, according to Mr. Brewin.

For those who do buy their vehicle from an authorised dealer, they also have the back-up and technical expertise of manufacturer, with Hyundai's donation of six engines to Bermuda College for use by apprentices on the National Training Board scheme an example of their wider reach.

In return, the manufacturer expects the dealer to consider its products, decide whether it is right for the market, do the due diligence and then buy it, with the whole process taking a company like HWP between four to six months to bring it into Bermuda.

In the meantime, the dealer also has to invest in parts, diagnostic tools to service the vehicle and the necessary training to operate them, as well as adhering to specific levels of standard in its main areas of the business vital to maintaining the manufacturer's brand name.

• HWP is planning to launch a new range of vehicles over the next few months, including the Mazda Sedan, Hyundai i20, a new model of Mitsubishi, Volkswagen and Skoda.