I guess I'm questioning where the connotation comes from.

I've never considered "recall" to be alarmist. It's just a process. I look at the recall notice, see what I have to do, and go from there. 95% of recalls I've been involved in are similar to this one: go to the shop, replace a $50 part, go on with my day.

I just find it weird that the name of a mundane process is "alarmist". Different exposure, I guess.

To a lot of consumers, "recall" implies the product they bought is unsafe and will end up hurting them or causing significant property damage. Think contaminated foods, car parts catching fire, faulty ignition switches causing vehicle crashes, airbag inflator shrapnel issues, etc.

So when they hear $AUTOMAKER is issuing a big recall, to a lot of people it means there's something massively unsafe about those cars. Even though sometimes a recall is just replacing a cap that doesn't seal as well as it should, or an exhaust filter canister not performing as it should, or other less critical recall reasons.

I would say "your brakes might fail because of a design error" is a pretty severe safety issue.

Absolutely, I agree.