You are referring to the Pinto Analysis. Car manufacturers don't do that anymore. They learned from Ford's mistake with the Pinto. Also, it costs significantly

You are referring to the Pinto Analysis. Car manufacturers don't do that anymore. They learned from Ford's mistake with the Pinto. Also, it costs significantly more to replace parts by recall than it does to simply hold back vehicles at the factory, on the order of 10-20x as much $$$, since there are additional legal and regulatory requirements associated with recalls, and generally releasing a car with known flawed parts means treble damages come into play in any legal proceeding (meaning, 3x damages awarded to the plaintiff).