CHRYSLER TO DENY GOVERNMENT'S REQUEST FOR RECALL OF JEEPS THAT CATCH ON FIRE

 

Chrysler has been hit with an order to issue a recall of more than 2.7 million older Jeep vehicles which authorities have said are at risk of catching fire in the event of a rear end collision.  

Chrysler has already set in motion a response that would challenge the findings, in the hope of avoiding the massive recall.  

51 people so far have died in incidents where Jeep Grand Cherokees and Libertys have caught on fire.  Both vehicle types have a plastic gas tank that is mounted behind the rear axles.  

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the watchdog agency that has ordered the recall is not new to these attempts at avoiding massive recalls on the part of automakers.  But they are usually rare.  The NHTSA however, has a weapon few automakers want to grapple with: a public trial. 

In the last case where a giant automaker tried to avoid a massive recall, the agency threatened to hold a public hearing in the case.  That time, the carmaker was Ford, and the car that was the subject of the recall was the Ford pickup truck whose airbags were found to be defective.  Ford immediately capitulated when the NHTSA presented that option.  

In this latest case, the agency might have to follow a similar approach.  And the recall could have a federal court judge adjudicate the case.  

The agency had begun the investigation of the incendiary Jeeps three years ago, after an advocacy group brought the evidence at its doorstep. 

The gas tanks of the Jeep vehicles are made of plastic, and they can rupture easily if the vehicle is hit forcefully enough from behind.  Any such rupture can result in fast and deadly fires that trap the passengers in the vehicle. 

If anything is telling about this case though, is the fact that Chrysler quietly moved the tank ahead of the rear axle in the new models, signifying an awareness of the problem. However, refitting the tank in older Jeep models or changing the gas tank to a new material would be very costly for the automaker. 

Even smaller remedies the company has considered could cost upward of a quarter billion dollars, a good chunk of money for the struggling automaker.  

Chrysler group is now majority owned by Fiat, the Italian automaker.  

Source : CNBC 6.18.13