TORONTO — Vehicle recalls could become broader and more frequent as automakers use increasingly complex technology and standardized manufacturing processes, analysts say.

“This is a recipe for more rather (than) fewer recall situations,” industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers wrote in a note Wednesday.

He was reacting to a flurry of recent recalls that have included Toyota, GM and many other global carmakers.

“We are going to see a number of these huge recalls this decade. No one is immune.”

Increasing government regulation over safety, emissions and fuel efficiency, as well as demand from consumers for better performance, has put pressure on the industry to build more sophisticated cars and trucks, DesRosiers said.

A typical car produced today has 50 electronic controls that use as much computing power as you would find in a jumbo jet, said Tony Faria, co-director of the automotive research centre at the University of Windsor.

“With that sort of complexity, it’s just likely that some problem of some sort is going to creep in, no matter what type of testing you do on a vehicle.”

Although Faria said he doesn’t believe the frequency of recalls will grow, he thinks they will include more vehicles than they have in the past due to increasingly standardized manufacturing processes and the development of vehicles that are built using the same components all over the world.

However, that doesn’t mean vehicles on the road today are any less safe than they were in the past, said Darren Slind, country manager for Canada with consumer survey firm J.D. Power and Associates.

“In fact, as we saw last year in the 2009 J.D. Power and Associates initial quality study, if anything the data suggests otherwise from the voices of consumers — that quality’s actually improving in terms of a reduced number of defects in the early ownership period,” Slind said.

General Motors and Nissan this week joined the growing list of automakers recalling large numbers of vehicles due to safety concerns.

Other companies that have issued recalls in recent months include Honda, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota.

The latter is coming under increasing pressure from regulators and lawyers to explain safety issues that led to a recall of 8.5 million vehicles worldwide and allegedly caused dozens of deaths.

Many of the recalls announced in recent months have addressed potential defects even if they don’t pose a significant safety risk. This was the case with this week’s GM’s recall of 1.3 million vehicles, including more than 256,000 in Canada, to fix power steering motors. GM said the vehicles are safe to drive and never lose steering, but they may be harder to turn when travelling under 24 kilometres an hour.

These proactive recalls indicate the industry may be moving to address potential problems early to avoid the sort of public beating Toyota has taken over its massive recalls.

“I think we’re going to see a much more responsive industry going forward,” said Bill Pochiluk, president of industry adviser AutomotiveCompass.

Although this will no doubt lead to a safer mix of vehicles on the road, it won’t be without its costs to the consumer, he added.

“The kind of testing that will be required in the future will add cost to the product and ultimately as consumers we’re all going to have to pay more, and we shouldn’t be surprised when that happens,” Pochiluk said.

In addition, new technology such as that used in hybrids and electric vehicles will be more closely watched before it’s made available to consumers, meaning it will take longer for new technology to hit the marketplace, he said.

Recent global recalls have included 8.5 million vehicles recalled by Toyota to deal with safety problems involving gas pedals, floor mats and brakes; 1.3 million vehicles recalled by GM to deal with power steering motors; 24,000 vehicles recalled by Chrysler due to a defective part that could lead to brake failure; 14.1 million vehicles recalled by Ford over problems with a speed control deactivation switch; 1.1 million vehicles recalled by Honda over problems with airbag inflators; and 540,000 vehicles recalled by Nissan to deal with potential defects in brake pedal pins and fuel gauge components.