Luxury car manufacturer Aston Marton Lagonda (Warwick / UK; www.astonmartin.com) is currently facing the nightmare scenario of having to recall 5,000 vehicles produced between 2007 and 2013 because of a faulty gas pedal. The worldwide recall is estimated to affect 17,000 vehicles of the “DB9”, “DBS”, “Vantage” and “Rapide” models.

The flaw – if that is what one can call the accidental packaging of non-specified PA 6 in fake DuPont bags – was discovered during an earlier recall. When technicians tried to replace a gas pedal, it broke in two – an incident they then reported to their superiors. Aston Martin launched an investigation and discovered that supplier Precision Varionic International (Swindon / UK; www.pvi.co.uk) had tasked several subcontractors in China with its production. The clientele of the Swindon-based company includes not only McLaren and Aston Martin, but also Shanghai-based SAIC.

Tough luck indeed that the Hong Kong-based tier 2 producer assigned by PVI then in turn delegated the order to a Shenzhen-based injection moulder, which used another PA 6 type and even alternative PA 6.6 instead of the specified DuPont grades. Aston Martin had ordered a pedal capable of handling 600 Newton capacity, and DuPont’s grades have been certified for 1,000 Newton. The good news is that the UK automotive producer has yet to reconstruct the break during the tests carried out to date.

Responding to a Plasteurope.com query, an Aston Martin spokeswoman was unable to say which car parts are still manufactured in China. “None of our tier 1 suppliers are located in China. All can be found in Europe, Canada and the US,” she said. However, she did add that, “we do not know if these companies are using Chinese subcontractors for the manufacture of certain parts.”

Aston Martin has already announced that it plans to once again insource all gas pedal production to the UK. Until that has been accomplished, representatives from both DuPont and the automotive supplier itself will be personally supervising the injection moulding machines in China and meticulously inspecting the origins of each single piece of resin. The question remains why a manufacturer of cars that go for EUR 100,000-260,000 a piece, and thus far from mass-produced, is subcontracting in China at all. Especially since every vehicle features the writing “Hand built in England” as well as the name of the technician on a shiny metal badge.