US safety agency says automakers recalled nearly 64M vehicles last year, shattering old record

Government statistics show that automakers issued 803 recalls totaling almost 64 million vehicles in the U.S. last year, more than double the old record set a decade earlier.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released numbers on Thursday. The agency says its investigations influenced 15 percent of the recalls. The rest manufacturers did on their own.

The figures shattered the old record for vehicles recalled of 30.8 million in 2004. The previous record for number of recalls was 684 set in 2008.

General Motors led automakers with 84 recalls totaling nearly 27 million vehicles in the U.S., according to company figures. A recall of a deadly ignition switch triggered a companywide safety review that led to still more recalls.