More typical, said Ditlow, was a decision in early 2011 by Ford to ignore a recall request for F-150 pickups with air bags that allegedly deployed inadvertently. But it was too late: Chrysler had already repaired the vehicles. A federal judge ruled against the automaker and ordered a recall, slapping Chrysler with $800,000 in fines.Ī year later, an appellate court overturned the ruling based on a technical interpretation of government testing procedures. One of those cases involved Chrysler, which the government sued in 1997 over allegedly defective seat-belt anchors on 91,000 Dodge Cirrus and Stratus sedans. Of those, only a handful ever ended up in court. Since 1974, when Congress increased NHTSA’s authority to request safety repairs, automakers have issued more than 3,000 recalls prompted by active investigations by the agency.Īutomakers have refused to comply only a few dozen times, Ditlow said.
Should that fail to spur action, the regulator could then ask the Department of Justice to sue the automaker on its behalf to force a Chrysler recall. If the automaker stands its ground, NHTSA’s next move would be to formally declare a defect in the Jeeps. “NHTSA hopes that Chrysler will reconsider its position and take action to protect its customers and the driving public.”Ĭhrysler denies any such defect, arguing that the vehicles meet all federal safety standards and pose no significant statistical risk. “Our data shows that these vehicles may contain a defect that presents an unreasonable risk to safety,” David Strickland, NHTSA administrator, said in a statement.
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