As long as there have been mass produced vehicles, there have been recalls. Henry Ford had to recall his first run of Model Ts, for instance, after he cheaped out and used Spanish Moss to fill the seats rather than cotton or other fibers. This gave his customers a charming case of chiggers and other biting insects that make their home in the moss.
Many of these recalls follow a similar vein: Automaker tries to save some money with a cheap part, and ends up shelling out millions in recalls, repairs, lawsuits or, in the worst instance, wrongful death suits. And then there are the automakers that outright cheated or knew about fatal design flaws and did nothing.