The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is coming under fire for its role in the General Motors faulty ignition switch recall, leaving many wondering about how the agency makes decisions regarding the process.
The agency is in the midst of opening an investigation into the GM issue and closing the door on others without finishing the job, critics offer.
For example, NHTSA just announced it was ending its investigation into a series of door fires in the Jeep Liberty. The query, which began in 2012, into 104,000 SUVs ended without seeking a recall despite reports of door fires linked to the driver’s side power master window switch.
The agency received reports of smoke coming from the driver’s door followed by flames, NHTSA said. In both instances, the driver had to stop the vehicle and exit through the passenger door.
“In addition to the fire, consumers reported erratic function of the windows and door locks resulting in activation on their own while the fire was occurring,” NHTSA said.
The investigation is just one of several recent instances in which the federal agency either declined to order a recall or automakers asked NHTSA to forgo ordering a recall because the impact on consumers is negligible. Not surprisingly, safety advocates are questioning the leadership of the agency.
Joan Claybrook, former NHTSA administrator, said the current threshold for ordering an investigation is too tough and officials don’t seem to understand that it should be much lower.
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She noted that during a recent hearing, the general counsel for NHTSA said the agency didn’t order an investigation into the General Motors ignition issue because there wasn’t a reasonable risk to public safety.
“That’s not what the law says,” she said. “That’s not the standard. We’re talking about just opening an investigation.”
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The agency has recently faced several high profile issues, such as Toyota’s unintended acceleration cases and the gas tank fires associated with the Jeep Liberty where they were not as aggressive as critics would like them to be.
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Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, said he’s confused by the reticence of the agency to be tougher on automakers and by the lack of responsiveness by automakers when their products may be dangerous.
“The whole point of the recall is to eliminate the product liability lawsuit, which causes quite a bit of damage to (an automaker’s) brand as well as costing a lot of money in damages,” he said. “It’s what it is designed to stop.”
Just recently, the NHTSA and Chrysler came to an agreement concerning stalling issues of early LX platform cars (300, Charger and Magnum). The cars would stall because a check valve in the fuel tank would freeze in one position because of component incompatibility with ethanol. The problem, stalling on a roadway or highway, would manifest itself when the fuel tank was filled above the 3/4 mark.
Chrysler avoided the recall by extending the fuel tank warranty to “lifetime” and the NHTSA bought into this responsibility avoidance. Pathetic.
For years BMW had massive high- pressure fuel pump failure rates on their x35i models which NHTSA was aware of. BMW tried 7+ replacement high-pressure fuel pump part numbers to bandaid the problem and never actually fixed the defect which resulted in accidents and vehicles lossing all power at any speed from city driving to 70+ mph highway speeds.
There were hundreds if not thousands of consumer complaints filed for these high-pressure fuel pump failures and NHTSA did nothing to force BMW to properly repair these vehicles other than extend the warranty, which doesn’t reduce the safety liability at all. Only after the media caught wind of the problem and 20/20 or one of the other investigative shows did a scathing report on the HPFPs that had been failing for years, did BMW agree to replace more fuel pumps with another HPFP design that STILL did not correct the defect. These cars are still on the roadways and the HPFPs are still failing and leaving commuters in a serious safety risk situation.
With the new $7 per vehicle sold NHTSA tax you’d have expected NHTSA to improve it’s performance as it always claimed it was limited by lack of resources. Apparently resources are not the only issue when NHTSA allows auto makers to ignore proper repairs on documented safety issues.