April 2016
Hold your breath. Here’s the latest well described status.http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-idUSKCN0XI24G
How much of the costs will be paid by taxpayers is still unknown.
Lou
April, 2016
Citizens Call for More Safety
“As Pope Francis made powerfully clear last year in Laudato Si’, we have the technology and know-how to solve our problems – from poverty to climate change to health care to protection of biodiversity. We also have the vast wealth to do so, especially if the rich pay their way in fair taxes rather than hiding their funds in the world’s tax and secrecy havens- as the Panama Papers have shown.
The challenges facing our planet are not mainly technological or even financial, because as a world we are rich enough to increase our investments in skills, infrastructure, and technological know-how to meet our needs and to protect the planet. Our challenge is mostly a moral one, to redirect our efforts and vision to the common good. Centesimus Annus, which we celebrate and reflect on today, and Laudato Si’, are powerful, eloquent and hopeful messages of this possibility. It is up to us to learn from them, and to move boldly toward the common good in our time.”
April, 2016
Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members: Where is KFF concern for auto safety here in the U.S.A.? 100 deaths + 400 serious injuries and $2 Billion per day and not much at KFF. Search for it at http://kff.org/
April, 2016
Deeper and deeper in death, injury, and deception!
Automotive News and Reuters report:
“DETROIT (Reuters) — In August of 2009, after ruptured airbag inflators in Honda vehicles were linked to least four injuries and a death, the automaker quietly requested a design change and did not notify U.S. regulators, Honda confirmed in response to inquiries from Reuters.
Honda Motor Co. asked supplier Takata Corp. to produce a “fail-safe” airbag inflator, according to Takata presentations and internal memos reviewed by Reuters.”
April, 2016
Note: Webcast
Lou
April, 2016
See Release below:
ANNAPOLIS, Md., April 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — On the final day of the legislative session, the General Assembly approved landmark legislation (HB 525) that will give Maryland one of the nation’s strongest and most consumer-friendly car safety disclosure laws. The law breaks new ground by forbidding carmakers from punishing dealers for sharing any communication from manufacturers that impacts “motor vehicle safety, durability, reliability, or performance” with anyone who purchases or services a car at the dealership.
The bill now goes to Gov. Larry Hogan for approval. Consumer Auto urges the governor to sign this important legislation as soon as possible. It is scheduled to take effect on Oct. 1.
The bill mandates that car manufacturers “may not prohibit a dealer from, or take any adverse against a dealer for” sharing safety and defect information from with their customers.
“MD’s new law will overturn the ‘gag rule’ carmakers impose on dealers and help MD drivers learn about safety problems manufacturers haven’t bothered to tell the public about,” Consumer Auto Executive Director Franz Schneiderman said. “It’s a real plus for safety and transparency for all Maryland drivers.”
Car manufacturers regularly share information with dealers about car safety and other defects in technical service bulletins and other communications. But many manufacturers use franchise rules to forbid dealers from sharing that information with customers unless they ask about the issue or in other narrow circumstances. Those rules often deprive drivers of information about serious, and sometimes deadly, defects until or unless the problem prompts a recall.
Several states have laws that allow dealers to share such communications with consumers who request it. Maryland’s law goes further by allowing dealers to share them anyone who purchases or services a car at the dealership.
Laura Christian, whose daughter Amber Marie Rose died in 2005 in Charles County, MD as a result of an ignition switch failure in her new Chevy Cobalt – a problem GM knew about but hadn’t disclosed to customers or safety regulators – worked hard for the legislation to honor her daughter’s legacy and protect other drivers. She sees the law as a real breakthrough, and a model for other states.
“My daughter died from a defect GM knew about, and more than 170 other sons and daughters died before GM finally recalled the cars and fully informed the public about the problem,” Ms. Christian comments. “This law gives dealers the ability to save lives by sharing that information with the public.”
“I believe the law can be a model that will inspire other states to act to get consumers better information about their vehicles, and I’m eager to work to bring it to other states,” she notes.
Critical support from Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and from leading consumer advocates including the Center for Auto Safety, the Consumer Federation of America, and Public Citizen helped prompt the Senate to amend the bill to strengthen its safety disclosure language.
“Support from Attorney General Brian Frosh and leading consumer advocates, along with leadership from Sen. Susan Lee, Del.David Fraser-Hidalgo and other key legislators, was crucial in helping us pass a law that will make a real difference forMaryland drivers,” Schneiderman notes. “We’re very grateful for their work.”
Consumer Auto is a coalition of advocates, consumers and people in the auto industry working for consumer safety and greater fairness and transparency in car sales. You can learn more at www.consumerauto.org.
SOURCE Consumer Auto
April, 2016
D Senate to strengthen the bill to better protect consumers.
“The bill would sharply limit our ability to share with our customers the information about defects the manufacturers share with us in service bulletins, warranty updates, and other communications,” notes Jack Fitzgerald, the president of Fitzgerald Auto Malls who has run a string of car dealerships in Maryland, Pennsylvania, andFlorida for 50 years.
“It’s absurd for Maryland law to prevent us from telling our customers about information that Congress and NHTSA say should be public. That’s a terrible disservice to the people who rely on us to sell and service their cars,” Mr. Fitzgerald argues.
On March 26, NHTSA published new rules in the Federal Register to enforce the MAP-21 law Congress passed in 2012. The rules insist that all communications from car manufacturers to dealers about safety and defect issues must be shared with federal safety regulators and made available to the public on NHTSA’s website. The bill the Maryland House passed would, in most cases, prevent dealers from disclosing that same information to their customers.
You can read the full regulation here:https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-03-25/pdf/2016-06759.pdf
House Bill 525 would allow dealers to share such information only if a customer comes in for service and asks about a problem mentioned in a service bulletin or if the dealer confirms that a car in its service shop has that problem.
“Under these rules, if you go to Jiffy Lube to get your car serviced instead of the dealer, you probably won’t find out about important safety information your dealer has,” Consumer Auto Executive Director Franz Schneiderman notes. “Or if you take your car to the dealer but don’t ask the right question or the dealer doesn’t happen to notice the problem, you probably won’t find out – unless you happen to search for it on the little-known NHTSA site.”
“That leaves too many drivers exposed to dangerous and sometimes deadly defects and deprives consumers of information about problems that could become very expensive repairs years later,” says Schneiderman.
Few people understand more vividly how dangerous unknown defects can be than Laura Christian, the birth-mother of a 16-year old girl named Amber Marie Rose who died in a 2005 accident caused an ignition switch failure in her new Chevy Cobalt. Her daughter was one of at least 124 people who died due to a defect that GM told dealers about in a technical service bulletin in Dec. 2005, but didn’t fully disclose to the public until it began recalling more than 2 million dangerous vehicles in Feb. 2014.
Ms. Christian, who has worked for the last decade to win justice for Amber and other victims of the GM defect and testified before the MD Assembly calling for much stronger safety disclosures, believes the Assembly needs to do much better for defect victims and other Maryland drivers.
“Drivers need someone to make an effort to let them know about defects,” Christian says. “The House bill preserves way too many restrictions on the safety information dealers can share, and will leave too many Marylanders in the dark and in danger from defects the manufacturers haven’t made public.”
Consumer Auto and other consumer advocates are working with the MD Senate to amend the House bill to enable dealers to disclose all the safety and defect information they get from car manufacturers to all their sales and service customers.
“There’s just no justification for keeping that information from the customers who need it most,” states Mr. Fitzgerald. “Dealers need to be able to stand up for the safety of their customers, and we won’t stop working until Maryland’s law allows us to do that.”
Consumer Auto is a coalition of advocates, consumers and people in the auto industry working for consumer safety and greater fairness and transparency in car sales. You can learn more atwww.consumerauto.org.”
More evidence that it is the corruption, stupid – widespread. See
