Three car models from different manufacturers were on a list of products for sale that were identified by the Malta Standards Authority as posing a risk to consumers in the first half of this year.
Unlike the other unsafe products, however, the car brands were not named. The authority has explained it only informed the public of defects in given products when the importer was unable to contact all the people who had bought them. In the case of the cars, all the purchasers had been contacted.
In its half-yearly account two weeks ago, the MSA, said its inspectors had found 18 unsafe non-food products being sold from retail outlets between January and June. It did not specify in the report what the products were although it has since explained that it had issued several press releases over the months giving the relevant information.
In the case of the cars, the regulator said one of them had a potential fault involving part of its steering column, which was down to a bolt connecting the part to another. The importer recalled all vehicles potentially affected and checked them for faults, free of charge.
Another model had a potential problem caused by a high electric current running through the solenoid circuit in its stop lamp switch. The risk was that if the circuit burnt out, the stop lamp switch could fail. Seeing as the model in question had an automatic transmission, it could not be put in gear and driven off if a failure occurred.
A stop lamp switch is located under any car's brake pedal and turns on the brake lights when a driver brakes. All affected vehicles were recalled by the importer for the problem to be sorted out.
The third model had a programming glitch, which meant its steering potentially could become temporarily off-centred. The importer fixed this by reprogramming the cars' steering control, the MSA said.
When pressed for the names of the cars, MSA chairman Francis Farrugia said he did "not want to bring up the past" by naming the manufacturers and importers because the problems had been identified and fixed.
Earlier this year, hundreds of Honda and Toyota cars were recalled by their local agents following international safety recalls. Both have however made the list of the top five most reliable cars in the latest annual study by influential Which Car? magazine.
Other items on the MSA's list of unsafe products included an airsoft gun, fluorescent lighting equipment and electrical appliances.
The MSA's inspectors visited 257 retail outlets in the first six months, ranging from shops to market stalls, inspecting more than 1,100 non-food products to ensure they were safe and conformed to legal requirements. A total of 135 samples were tested.