Posts Tagged ‘ defective auto ’

Defective Products—Will the World be held Accountable?

January 13th, 2011. By janem

Wikileaks just got wind of a secret document from Chinese officials regarding the pending Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act of 2010, or FMLAA. If the bill is passed, China plans to buy “Made in America” products, from toys to drywall, splatter  them with lead paint and sell these defective products to countries that trade with the US.  Why, you may ask? Because China wants to level the playing field: If the US can sue China under the FMLAA for contaminated drywall and defective toys, “foreign countries” (including Canada and the EU) can sue the US because their “Made in America” products are contaminated with lead paint.

KIDDING!  But it may have crossed the minds of unscrupulous Chinese manufacturers…

Last February, Representative Betty Sutton introduced the FMLAA following the Chinese drywall debacle, which came on the heels of other problems with imported products—from baby cribs and toys to auto brakes. This bill will take the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2009 one step further, to product litigation. It means that foreign manufacturers who ship to the US will have to hire a resident US agent, who will then have to “accept service of process on behalf of such manufacturer or producer for the purpose of all civil and regulatory actions in State and Federal Courts.” No registered agent, no importation.

On Tuesday, January 11^th, the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear two cases about the right to sue a foreign manufacturer in the U.S. court system.

In the first case, Robert Nicastro lost his four right fingers in 2001 while operating a machine used to cut metal made by McIntyre Machinery, based in the UK. The machine Nicastro was operating did not meet U.S. safety standards, but was marketed at trade shows across the US for 15 years. Nicastro brought a product liability case against the company in 2003, and McIntyre is arguing that because they are a UK company, they did not have sufficient “contacts” in New Jersey for the state’s legal system to have jurisdiction over them.

In the second case, two young boys, Matt Helms and Julian Brown were killed in a bus accident while traveling to Paris, France for a soccer tournament. The driver of the bus lost control when the Goodyear tire from the bus had its plies separate, causing the bus to rollover. The families of the boys are seeking to hold Goodyear Luxembourg, the manufacturer of the tire, accountable in the North Carolina court system.

Meanwhile, the head of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission seems to be up against a brick wall (pardon the pun) after meeting with her counterparts there about defective Chinese drywall, among other issues. Chinese drywall manufacturers have yet to come to the table for discussions. (According to the CPSC, as of Jan. 7, there were 3,770 incidents reported of defective drywall.)

Perhaps the threat of litigation under the FMLAA will get them talking.

Tags: chinese drywall, defective auto, lead paint toys
Posted in Defective Products | No Comments »

Reader Takes Chrysler Town & Country to Task on Video

January 13th, 2011. By AbiK

This just in from a reader re: Chrysler Town and Country:

Please help me….I’ve hit a brick wall with all my inquiries and this is a HUGE issue.
Please go to youtube and type in silverlake003 and the video list will show up.
It’s about the third one down with the back bumper of a Chrysler Town and Country, sort of a wine color.
This quick video will explain it.
We were rear-ended just before Christmas.
The seatbelts did not lock and my daughter who was in a booster was flipped outside down and pinned between her seat and the passenger seat.
The seatbelts lock if you slam on the breaks but not if you are sitting still.
I filed a report with the NHTSA but was simply sent an email that said CASE CLOSED.
Please help me ensure that no other child has this happen to them.

Now, I don’t know what year model she’s referring to, but her video and comment is of interest as we all expect a seatbelt to work when we slam on the brakes. But what happens upon rear impact?

I know from personal experience—will never forget it as it was the night that news about Sam Kinison’s death was all over the radio—when a car rear-ended me at a red light. I began to jerk forward for sure—but my seatbelt restrained me from having my steering wheel imprint a nice doughnut “O” on my chest. It was a hit and run, so the idiot who did it was never caught, or apprehended.

Be that as it may, I expected my seatbelt to work. And it did.

Chrysler did have a Town and Country recall a number of years ago—in 2005—NHTSA Campaign ID#04V047000—for defective seatbelts. The issue at the time was “After performing the NCAP test, it was discovered that on certain minivans equipped without the available “Stow N Go” seating option, the right front seat belt retractor assembly may have been improperly assembled….As a result the seat belt may not properly restrain the occupant during certain crash conditions, which can increase the risk of injury.”

But no seatbelt recalls since. And a quick check on Town and Country models from the years 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 results in only a few reported seat belt complaints with the NHTSA.

Still, a picture (or video) can be worth a thousand words. No, a layperson’s video is not the same as some closed circuit test drive over at Consumer Reports—but by the same token, it does raise an eyebrow.

Thanks, Sarah, for sharing your story.

Tags: Chrysler, defective auto, Defective Seatbelts, NHTSA, Town & Country, Town and Country
Posted in Automotive, Defective Products | No Comments »

Toyota Recall: Speed and Greed?

January 28th, 2010. By janem

Perhaps car makers, Toyota in particular, should figure out how crash test dummies can work a worn gas pedal–it might have saved lives. The latest accelerator recall is none too soon: In March 2007 Toyota began receiving reports that pedals were operating roughly or were slow to return to the idle position in the Tundra pickup, and again in December 2008, similar problems with its Aygo and Yaris models.

Toyota reported the Tundra problem was fixed in February 2008 and said it lengthened a part and changed the material to fix Aygo and Yaris, starting in August 2009. But the world’s largest auto maker recently seems to be plagued with even bigger problems.

On its website, Toyota says that “certain accelerator pedal mechanisms may, mechanically stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position…it can occur when the pedal mechanism becomes worn and, in certain conditions, the accelerator pedal may become harder to depress, slower to return or, in the worst case, stuck in a partially depressed position.”  YIKES!

Just months ago, the company recalled of 4.2 million vehicles due to its gas pedals getting trapped under floor mats, causing sudden acceleration. Several crashes, including a number of fatalities, prompted that recall. This recent recall involves eight models affecting more than 2.3 million vehicles.

Toyota has one of the best track records for building safe cars, so why has it gone off the rails-or I should say, assembly line? Perhaps greed is a component. Analysts say the company’s former president, Katsuaki Watanabe, was a cost-cutting expert with an aggressive growth strategy that landed Toyota into the Number 1 global sales spot two years ago, beating out General Motors.

Wanna know what happened to Watanabe? In 2006, the Japanese government launched a criminal investigation into accidents suspected of being linked to vehicle problems, though nobody was charged. Watanabe later acknowledged overzealous growth was behind the quality problems.

Last year, Watanabe was replaced by Akio Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota’s founder. I bet Toyoda is pissed.

Toyota predicts that 2.19 million vehicles will be sold in North America in 2010, up 11 per cent from 2009. Globally, Toyota said it was planning sales of 8.27 million vehicles this year, up 6 per cent from 2009. But those targets might need to be tweaked somewhat…

Tags: defective auto, Toyota, toyota recall
Posted in Defective Products | 2 Comments »