A few days ago, consumer groups petitioned the Federal Trade Commission yesterday to require that Chrysler vehicles display stickers warning prospective buyers of liability risks. A KGO-TV story on this controversy is here.
Congressman André Carson (D-Ind.) has proposed legislation that would require all automakers to purchase liability insurance if they are majority-owned by the federal government or if they have federal loans.
New Chrysler will not pay any civil penalties under the lemon laws. It remains to be seen just how far Chrysler is willing to go in negotiating settlements. 
Persons who suffered personal injuries because of defects in Chrysler vehicles, however, are out of luck. Consumer groups and victims' petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve their rights was denied on June 9, 2009.
A bill of the California Legislature, SB 95, would help deter this abuse and would add protection to victims. The bill would raise the dealer bond to $100,000 and would add a requirement that dealers pay off loans on trade-ins within a short time period.
KABOB client Stefanie Feliciano is a typical of persons caught in this scenario. A dealer failed to pay off the loan on a trade-in car leaving her with the loan obligation. This weekend a Sacramento TV station, KCRA, featured a story and video on Ms Feliciano and the bill, SB 95, accessible at http://www.kcra.com/money/19553191/detail.html.
]]>Using this criteria, among moderate priced cars, he recommends the 2004-06 Toyota Camry with the optional stability control, the 2008-09 Chevrolet Malibu, recent Ford Fusion models with stability control, and the 2006-09 Subaru Legacy. Among luxury used cars, White likes the 2003-06 Lexus ES, 2006 Audi A4 and the Prius models with stability control.
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Dealers may forget to pay off the loan on a trade-in car or to send in the paperwork for an extended warranty or a factory rebate. The dealer may promise to fix or add accessories and may not be around to follow through.
So--do not trade in a car if you owe money on it. Sell it yourself or pay off the loan. If a dealer promises to fix something or add an accessory, make sure the work is done before you sign a contract to buy the car. Or, if a dealer looks really shaky, buy somewhere else!
]]>The Smart For Two had “extensive” damage into the area where the driver sits. The institute's findings indicate a human would have a high likelihood of sustaining head and leg injuries. The Yaris rated poor in the area of head and leg injuries as well. A driver of the Fit in a similar accident would have hit the steering wheel through the airbag in addition to sustaining leg injuries.
In a statement, Adrian Lund, president of the Arlington, Va.-based institute, said, "Though much safer than they were a few years ago, minicars as a group do a comparatively poor job of protecting people in crashes, simply because they're smaller and lighter. In collisions with bigger vehicles, the forces acting on the smaller ones are higher, and there's less distance from the front of a small car to the occupant compartment to 'ride down' the impact. These and other factors increase injury likelihood."
Toyota’s statement said the institute's test was equal to an 80-mph collision, which was “a speed and energy higher than 99.1% of all real world crashes."
Honda’s statement also said the tests were done at a higher speed than most real world crashes and that, for the company, “Safety is a top priority.”
Institute for Highway Safety spokesman Russ Rader said that the test was not done any differently than past front crash tests, but that the automakers use the combined speeds of 40 mph on each car to come up with the 80-mph complaint.
"This new test is no different than others they have done in the past -- both vehicles are traveling at 40 miles per hour so the closing speed could be considered 80 miles per hour," Rader said. He added that the test configuration is exactly the same as crash test results the automakers use in their safety advertising.
]]>NHTSA sets safety standards for cars sold in the United States and is also responsible for regulating national average fuel economy standards. Consumer Reports blog entry on Hurley states that Hurley favors much stronger roof strength standards to prevent vehicle roofs from collapsing on occupants in rollover accidents.
Only four of the dozen small S.U.V.’s evaluated in a new test to see how well their roofs held up in a rollover crash got “good” ratings, and some of the country’s most popular models did not fare well.
The new Volkswagen Tiguan, Subaru Forester, the Honda Element and the Jeep Patriot received good ratings. The Suzuki Grand Vitara, Chevrolet Equinox (and Pontiac Torrent), the Toyota RAV4, the Nissan Rogue and the Mitsubishi Outlander received acceptable ratings.
The popular Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner/Mazda Tribute triplets and Honda’s CR-V got marginal ratings. The worst-performing models were the Kia Sportage and its sibling the Hyundai Tucson, which got poor ratings.
]]>To counter this problem, President Obama announced this morning that the federal government will back their car warranties, in an effort to bolster consumer confidence.
The program will involve a separate account that will be funded with cash contributed by the manufacturer and a loan from the U.S. government to pay for repairs covered by the manufacturer’s warranty on each new vehicle. More details on the announcement are available in a NY Times article by Chris Jensen.
]]>CR's graph tells the story:
The bad news is that buyers must buy expensive additional option packages, or even a more expensive model, to get these features. As reported by Cheryl Jensen in February 20, 2009, edition of the NY Times, a person buying a 2008 Nissan Altima 4-cylinder car would have to move up to the V-6 and buy the technology package for an added cost of $5,000 to $6,000.
Ms Jensen points out that even Honda, a leader in car safety, does not offer stability control on the basic 2009 Honda Fit and Insight models.
]]>GM's warranty costs were $4.5 billion in 2007 so clearly a lot of money is at stake.
GM has said it will always honor its warranties forever. GM has said it will honor Saab warranties post its recent bankruptcy filing in a Swedish court. Chrysler states it is committed to serving its customers.
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About 10,000 people call in to Car Talk's answering machines every day. Some 1,000 callers manage to leave messages. Interns screen the messages and a producer makes follow-up calls to about 25 persons. The producer looks for a dozen articulate folks with a sense of humor and an interesting, current car problem that is straight forward enough to be discussed on the air. They also look for diverse "voices," (urban, rural, young, old, male, female) and an assortment of issues.
Contrary to some rumors, the brother do not have advance information on the callers or their car problems. The Car Talk website is www.cartalk.com.
]]>Starting March 30, 2009, salvage yards, junk yards, and insurance companies must provide information on junked cars for inclusion in the database.
Shamefully, California, New York and Pennslyvania officials are balking at participating. Observers say it may be because those states get revenue from supplying vehicle information to private databases (presumably Carfax and AutoCheck). Presumably this will get worked out in time.
Three consumer advocacy groups had to sue the U.S. Department of Justice to get this done. Rosemary Shahan of Citizens for Auto Reliability and Safety led the way.
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