Chrysler Gambling on Jeep Recall Refusal
June 8, 2013
Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
CNN article and accompanying videos do an excellent job of alerting the public to the life or death problem of Chrysler Jeep fires. See
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/opinion/ditlow-chrysler-recall/index.html?hpt=hp_t4
More than 100,000 people so far have signed petition for recall. See
hhttp://www.change.org/dangerousjeeps
https://www.change.org/petitions/dot-and-nhtsa-save-innocent-families-from-burning-to-death-in-jeeps
Center for Auto Safety Letters to Chrysler and Fiat. See
Businessweek article quotes sales executive. See
A Rare Recall Standoff as Chrysler Questions Safety Issue
So Chrysler is employing the playbook of Deny and Delay. The gamble is that every day of delay decreases the amount of money it will have to pay out to its Jeep owners. And every day of delay without another crash fatality is money in their pockets. Chrysler and Fiat are gambling that paying lawyers, lobbyists, engineers, statisticians, and scientists to obfuscate will be cheaper than recalling and repairing or replacing existing vehicles with defects.
But who will win? Who will lose? Chrysler and Fiat stand to lose some money and reputation. Jeep owners stand to lose lives and livelihoods.
How many more fatal crashes will it take for Chrysler and Fiat to stop their gambling with corporate money (much lent by American taxpayers) and the American people’s lives?
Gandhi’s seven deadly sins or blunders include:
Commerce without Morality.
and
Science without Humanity.
So how do these businessmen and engineers sleep at night knowing that it is a matter of time before the next Jeep rolling fire bomb explodes? How many more tragedies will it take before Chrysler realizes it will cost more in sales and reputation than the cost of recalling and replacing these vehicles?
When will Chrysler and Fiat realize that recall would be the humane, enlightened, and worthwhile investment in their reputation and customer base? Recall would be a wiser, fairer, and morally sound investment than say another billion dollars in advertising (which is close to their annual marketing budget).
Or will we soon be asking: What did they know and when did they know it? When Jeep launched the first 1993 Jeep with gas tanks with the dangerously defective design of behind the rear axle it was decades after the Pinto rear gas tank disaster.
Who would benefit if NHTSA and Congress held public hearings and summon not just the Chairmen of Chrysler and Fiat, but also their
Board Members to testify under oath?
In the contest between morality and mortality let’s save lives now, please.
