C.A.R.S. News Archives (2015-2017)

 
"Why are dealers still selling cars with unrepaired — and potentially fatal — safety recalls?

Consumer advocates are outraged by the Federal Trade Commission's decisions in several recent cases that allow car dealers to advertise used vehicles with open recalls as safe.

Last year, the FTC reached legal agreements with General Motors and two car dealers who had advertised how rigorously they inspected their cars, but failed to disclose that some of those "certified" or "inspected" vehicles were subject to unrepaired safety recalls.

According to the complaint, some of those open recalls could cause serious injury from issues such as faulty ignition switches and airbags, problems with the power steering and braking, and alternator problems that could result in a fire.

As part of the settlement, the commission decided the dealers could claim used vehicles with unfixed recalls are "safe" or have been subject to "a rigorous inspection," as long as they disclosed that those recall repairs were not made. GM and the car dealers did not admit any wrongdoing.

Last week, the Center for Auto Safety, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group sued the FTC, asking a federal court to review and overturn these consent agreements.

It's Not 'Safe' If It Is Potentially Lethal

"It's a dangerous and irresponsible abuse of the commission's authority," said Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto reliability and Safety (CARS). "Instead of protecting consumers, the FTC is allowing false and deceptive advertising. A vehicle cannot be safe when it has a potentially lethal safety defect that hasn't been fixed."

Read more: NBC News: "FTC Sued for Allowing Car Dealers to Sell Recalled Vehicles with Potentially Lethal Defects"
 

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"Recalls have been making headlines for the past several years, but on used car lots, recalled vehicles aren't always easy to spot. That could change thanks to a new lawsuit filed against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission...

....massive retailer AutoNation saw the writing on the wall and announced big plans to repair all recalled vehicles before rolling them into showrooms. A year later, though, AutoNation abandoned that program: not only was repairing vehicles costing the company in lost sales, but CEO Mike Jackson also cited Donald Trump's win in the U.S. presidential election as a sign that legislative efforts to mandate repairs of used cars would stall.

And stall they have. As a result, consumer groups like Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, the Center for Auto Safety, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group have filed a lawsuit against the FTC....

Generally speaking, automakers forbid dealerships from advertising vehicles as "certified pre-owned" unless they've been through rigorous inspections and repaired for any safety problems. However, Ford recently told dealers that they can advertise vehicles as "certified", as long as (a) they don't include the word "safe" in their advertising, and (b) they have buyers sign waivers to indicate that they're aware the vehicle they're purchasing may be unsafe....

Even in today's contentious political climate, when everything is spun for maximum effect, words still mean things. If a car is listed as "certified pre-owned", it implies certain benefits, certain things that consumers can take for granted. Shifting the definition of the phrase is potentially hazardous to consumers' health. On that argument alone, the plaintiffs would seem to have a strong case.

On the other hand, the courts have a long history of believing in the principle of "caveat emptor": buyer beware. The court could cite such precedents and side with the FTC.

We're not lawyers or judges, so we won't comment on the likelihood of one verdict versus another. But we'll do our best to keep you posted."

Read more: Washington Post: "New lawsuit could force used car dealers to repair recalled vehicles"
 

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"For people in the market for a used car, the "certified pre-owned" designation has long been the gold standard, an indication that a qualified mechanic has vouched for the car and that a buyer can expect a vehicle that is - hopefully - almost as good as new.

But the Takata airbag recall, which is the biggest in history, has upended all of that. Now the certified designation - known in the auto trade as C.P.O. - will no longer necessarily have the same meaning. For one thing, last month the Federal Trade Commission made it easier for cars to be billed as "certified," even if they were under recall and hadn't been fixed yet.

And just as significantly, Ford - with the F.T.C. settlement for cover - told its dealers this week that they could sell recalled vehicles and certify them too, so long as they did not advertise them as "safe" and required buyers to sign forms acknowledging that they were aware of the problem.

Against this backdrop, one dealer in Florida has refused to sell recalled vehicles that he cannot get fixed, letting 100 or so pile up on a lot miles from his main showroom. He even sued a rival who he believes is selling recalled cars without disclosing that they have not been fixed yet....

"...the Federal Trade Commission told General Motors and two dealers in December that it was just fine to advertise used vehicles as certified even if their airbags were under recall and had not been fixed. Just disclose it, the agency said (in a complaint that has sent jaws dropping throughout the auto industry). [And among auto safety advocates, who have been actively opposing the FTC's proposed agreements.]

The used-car chain CarMax has taken a similar approach to Ford's. While it too had a recent run in with the F.T.C. over disclosure issues, the company says that it is transparent as possible, from its online listings to its in-person interactions.

But why sell cars with open recalls at all, thus putting the onus on consumers to sort out the repair....

AutoNation [the largest new car dealership chain in the U.S.] took a different approach, at least at first. In 2015, its chief executive, Mike Jackson, told Automotive News that the recall situation was "a dysfunctional nightmare that the industry should be ashamed of." The company pledged to sell no cars with open recalls, period.

By last year, it was costing the company dearly, to the tune of 6 cents per share of its earnings in the third quarter. In November, it gave up and began selling some cars with open recalls (and full disclosures). The lack of Takata airbag replacements, the F.T.C.'s decision and other anticipated regulatory rollbacks proved to be too much.... Worried about a car that you already have? You should be, both about future Takata recalls and others that we don't know about yet. Rosemary Shahan of the Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety suggests registering your vehicle both with your car's manufacturer and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration so that you get a notice if your airbag or anything else comes up for recall. Run the vehicle identification number through some checks yourself from time to time too, just to make sure you're not missing anything.

You might also hope that more dealers act out in the same way as Earl Stewart of Lake Park, Fla. He refuses to sell used cars with open recalls, but he doesn't want to turn away people who are trading in cars with recalled Takata airbags that they have not been able to get fixed yet. This trade-in policy isn't just good customer service; if he can't take their trade, they might not buy another vehicle from him at the same time that they turn their old one in.

As a result, however, he has 100 or so cars sitting in a lot waiting for repair. And when he sent secret shoppers into competing dealers to see how much disclosure they were doing about recalled cars they were selling, he was outraged at what he found. "Maybe this is unique to South Florida, but they are all extremely devious and proactively trying to sell recalled cars by saying there is no recall," Mr. Stewart said.

So he filed a lawsuit to try to swing others over to his way of doing things. 'I don't want the money - I just want to stop the practice,' he said. 'We're going to keep filing suits until they throw the towel in.'"

Read more: New York Times: "How to Buy a Used Car in an Age of Widespread Recalls"
 

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"A consumer group criticized those agreements as failing to protect car buyers and actually harming consumers. By permitting the companies to disclose that cars may be subject to recalls, the FTC is allowing them to advertise that recalled and unrepaired used cars are safe and have been 'repaired for safety,' Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety said in a statement. The consent orders may lower the standard for the industry in this type of advertising and are weaker than state laws, the group said."

Read more: AP report, published in New York Times: CarMax, others settle US Actions over Used Car Safety
 

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"As President-elect Trump pieces together his administration, consumer advocates are wondering who will head up the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – a crucial position when it comes to automotive safety. That position is now held by Mark Rosekind, who got the job in December 2014.

One can make a good argument that Rosekind has been the most aggressive, pro-consumer administrator in years. It's been a startling and happy change for an agency that has had a relationship with the auto industry routinely criticized by consumer advocates as cozy and accommodating.

'He deserves enormous credit for pressuring manufacturers to perform record numbers of safety recalls and to take a more pro-active approach to addressing safety defects,' says Rosemary Shahan, the president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety...

Under [former NHTSA Administrator David Strickland], safety advocates said N.H.T.S.A. continued as a captive of the auto industry and Strickland showed little interest in breaking free...

The decision on whether to replace Rosekind is expected to be made by Elaine Chao, who has been selected to head up the Department of Transportation. The N.H.T.S.A. is part of that department."

Note: Elaine Chao is married to Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Since 2011, she has been serving on the Board of Directors of Wells Fargo, which has been caught engaging in numerous illegal practices, including creating bogus accounts through fraud and identity theft, overcharging over $203 million in overdraft fees, and illegally repossessing cars from military Servicemembers serving our nation on active duty.

Read more: Trump Appointments - A Step Back for Auto Safety?
 

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ELK GROVE (CBS13) – The Takata airbag recall is so huge that carmakers can't get all the vehicles on the road fixed right away. And with the reported deaths, Elk Grove couple Judi and Jim Braddy say they don't want to drive their 2013 Volkswagen Golf in the meantime. Judi says her Golf doesn't see much time on the road these days.

'If I drive it at all, it's just to the store and back,' said Judi.

It has been recalled over its Takata airbag, just like 29 million other cars tied to 14 carmakers. The airbag issue is now blamed for 11 deaths and more than a hundred injuries. "They have no idea when the part is going to be available," said Judi. With seven months left on their lease, Judi and Jim just want it fixed or want to trade in their Golf early. 'My biggest fear is that something could happen to my wife or…granddaughter,' said Jim.

We reached out to Rosemary Shahan, President of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety to get an idea of the size of this recall. 'This is a huge problem for consumers who can't get their cars fixed,' said Shahan. She says with the massive repair backlog, anyone who feels unsafe should demand a loaner car. But what if the car company says refuses? Shahan says, 'I wouldn't take no for an answer.'

But that didn't work for the Braddys; they say Volkswagen refused to provide a loaner car...."

See the full report: KOVR TV: "Deadly Airbags are Still on the Road"

Note: If you have a recalled car with a Takata air bag and the manufacturer refuses to provide a loaner car, consider renting a safe car and seeking reimbursement for the expenses, either by taking the manufacturer to small claims court or obtaining legal counsel. The National Association of Consumer Advocates lists attorneys who specialize in representing consumers in auto warranty and fraud cases. Some attorneys have succeeded in obtaining relief for clients stuck with unsafe recalled cars, who are facing lengthy delays for repairs.
 

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"SAN DIEGO - A local military veteran saved his money to buy a used car only to find out it is not his at all.

Michael Bentley served in the Navy and was stationed in San Diego. He told Team 10, 'I lived out here when I was in the military; loved it out here.' Bentley moved back to San Diego for a new job. He knew he needed a car, so he went to Quality Auto Group on Miramar Road to buy one. 'It's a 2010 Nissan Altima. I liked it because it had a nice four-cylinder [engine],' Bentley said.

He had no issues at first, but a few months later, he was pulled over for having an unregistered vehicle. Bentley has been pulled over twice so far and has had to pay a couple hundred dollars' worth of tickets. His temporary tags had expired. Bentley was waiting for his permanent license plates and registration from Quality Auto Group, but they never came. Bentley called the business several times, but he could not get a hold of anyone. He later learned Quality Auto Group went out of business, leaving him with unanswered questions.

'I don't want to be driving an illegal car,' Bentley said.

Bentley later learned the Nissan he bought also had an outstanding lien. His lawyer told Team 10 the dealership did not have clear title and never properly registered the car with the DMV, which is a violation of the vehicle code.

'I pretty much have a $17,000 paperweight,' Bentley told Team 10. Team 10 went to an address listed for the dealership owner, Manouchehr Sorbi. Nobody answered the door and the front room looked empty, except for a dog inside.

Consumer advocate Rosemary Shahan said it is far too easy for small dealerships like Quality Auto Group to disappear and reappear. 'Very often, they just start up under another relative's name so they go in and out of business over and over again,' said Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety. Shahan recommends shoppers looking for a used car ask to see the actual title and double check it with the DMV. Bentley plans to file a civil lawsuit. He is sharing his story so others will not have to deal with a similar predicament.

A DMV spokesperson confirmed there were three cases against Quality Auto Group, but did not go into detail. Those cases are now closed, and the DMV could not talk about Bentley's case because it is an open investigation."

Watch the full report: ABC Channel 10 (San Diego): Military Veteran says Car Dealership Selling Unregistered Cars
 

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"Ms. Robles's son, Jose Contreras, 26, bought his mother's car a year ago from Ivan Henderson, a man he met playing pool.

Last month, during a fender-bender, the car's airbag exploded, propelling metal parts that killed Ms. Robles, who worked the 5 a.m. shift as a breakfast attendant at a Hampton Inn.

'She was my best friend,' Mr. Contreras said of his mother, in text messages, from his home in Riverside. 'Her grandkids were her world.'....

Safety advocates say that Mr. Henderson and the sellers before him should never have sold a recalled car without disclosing the defect or getting the airbag replaced at a Honda dealer at no cost to the owner...

Despite the lack of explicit federal laws on recalled used cars, a patchwork of state consumer protections and laws already effectively prohibits the sale of dangerous vehicles, some safety advocates and lawyers say.

"Anytime they conceal a material defect, that's fraud," said Rosemary Shahan, the president of the nonprofit Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety.

New York State, for instance, forbids the sale of vehicles "as is." The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs says cars offered for sale must be "roadworthy," and it has gone after dealers it suspected of selling cars that were recalled but not repaired.

Some companies like CarMax, one of the country's largest used-car dealers, advertise that their vehicles pass rigorous safety tests — even if the cars have unrepaired problems for which recalls have been issued. CarMax says it discloses recalls.

Still, Ms. Shahan and others argue, advertising a recalled vehicle as safe is misleading."

Read more: New York Times: "Used Cars Slip Past Recall Safeguards"
 

"On Tuesday, two reporters from The New York Times visited a car auction held in Queens by the New York City Department of Finance.

It was a lesson in how consumers can purchase cars that have deadly defects and how sellers have few obligations to disclose those defects to the public....half of the cars had been recalled for various reasons, including faulty ignition switches and Takata airbags, which between them have killed or injured hundreds of people worldwide.

Unlike new cars, used cars have no federal requirement that sellers disclose safety recalls or fix dangerous defects, although some state and local regulations offer consumers some protections.

But enforcing those protections can be tricky, and sometimes happens only after someone has been harmed, requiring lawsuits for wrongful death or negligence.

That is why safety advocates like Rosemary Shahan, the president of the nonprofit Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, have been pushing for laws that specifically ban the sale of recalled vehicles in which repairs have not been made.

'It's illegal for a dealer to knowingly or negligently sell an unsafe car,' Ms. Shahan said. 'It's a question of, how many layers of enforcement can you add?' "

Read more: NY Times report "Buying at a Used Car Auction?"
 

"Advocates and even critics of self-driving cars agree that they will someday be part of life in California. Just how soon that happens and what form autonomous vehicles take will likely be determined to some extent in Sacramento just a week and a half from now. The California Department of Motor Vehicles' revised draft regulations for autonomous vehicles will be open to public comment at an Oct. 19 workshop...

Rosemary Shahan, president and founder of the Sacramento-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, said that would unfairly place liability on the 'driver,' when the onus should fall to the automakers developing the technology. She also said there should be driver training in the event of an autonomous vehicle failure and what to do if the electricity grid goes down."

Read more: Sacramento Bee: DMV workshop on future of self-driving cars
 

"The case, which heads to the Superior Court of Georgia for trial early next year, has prompted a consumer advocacy group to lobby for a law that would force companies to adhere to their warranty promises even when products are taken overseas by members of the military on active duty. Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, said she and the Snells have been in talks with the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation about creating legislation that would guarantee military members on active duty would get warranties honored.

Shahan pushed for a similar law that was passed in 2007 in California that protects military service members under California's lemon laws, even for a vehicle purchased outside California. That's important for military service people, who move every two to three years on average.

Flinn said he hopes there will be political willingness to pass a similar law that covers overseas deployments. He said, 'We need to get something done to make sure the warranties follow servicemen overseas.'"
 

"To the agency's credit this is the second time this year that N.H.T.S.A. has expanded a regional recall. Earlier this year it required the deadly Takata airbag recall to go national, although some consumer advocates say that was a no-brainer.

So, could N.H.T.S.A. suddenly be paying more attention to regional recalls and generally getting tougher on the automakers?

Some consumer advocates think that's possible due to the influence Mark Rosekind, who was appointed late in 2014 by President Obama to take over an agency with a reputation among consumer advocates for being too accommodating to the auto industry at the expense of consumers.

Under Rosekind the agency has been more aggressive and tougher, says Rosemary Shahan, the president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety.

But, she says, N.H.T.S.A. should never have been allowed Ford to recall only 767,000 of those vehicles in the first place.

Read more: "Forbes: Ford expands safety recall"
 

 
"U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, a Texas Republican under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, asserts that he did nothing wrong when he offered an amendment that would benefit car dealers — despite the fact that he himself is a car dealer.

Members of Congress, say the rules, may not use their positions for personal financial benefit. But Williams asserted in a statement that he did not profit from his actions.

Instead, Williams revealed, he offered the amendment at the behest of a lobbyist. And the lobbyist — whose employer, the National Automobile Dealers Association, one of the congressman's top donors — was even kind enough to send along 'proposed language' for the text of the amendment.

The case is being considered by the House Ethics Committee. There is no timetable for when the committee will rule. But regardless of what happens, the Austin area congressman's defense offers a rare glimpse at how business is often done in the Capitol.

In this case, at least, it reveals a place where lobbyists have enormous influence; where a legislator was arguably more concerned with his own interests and those of his donors than his constituents; and where actions that appear at first glance to be clear conflicts of interest, are in fact, routine...

Rep. Williams offered an amendment on the floor of the House just before midnight on Nov. 4 that alleviated the dealers' concerns. It would, as understood by Williams and NADA, carve out an exemption for auto dealers. It would, in effect, allow them to rent or loan out vehicles even if they were subject to safety recalls...

'It seems to me that if it isn't illegal, if it isn't an ethics violation it ought to be,' said Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, a [non-profit] consumer group. 'His amendment benefits nobody but car dealers. And he's a car dealer.'

In his statement, Williams says that his business does indeed offer rental cars for use by customers who are getting their vehicles fixed as well as loaner cars...Williams, in his defense, said he sometimes loses money under the arrangement and that the passage of the amendment would have "zero bearing" on his business interests.

Shahan said dealers still benefit indirectly.

'They benefit, of course, by profiting from having the repair business,' she said. 'And you can be sure that it's built into the price they charge for the repair.'

Shahan said it was clear that the congressman was not interested in consumers.

'It doesn't get any clearer that he was not acting in the public interest, he was acting in the interest of the NADA members. He doesn't even claim to be acting in the public interest,' she said."

Read more: Congressman Roger Williams faces ongoing ethics probe
 

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At a roundtable and Field Hearing in Sacramento hosted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CARS President praised CFPB Director Richard Cordray and his team for helping improve America's economy and protect consumers, especially military Servicemembers and their families. At the roundtable, Shahan also provided information about predatory lending practices perpetrated by "Buy Here Pay Here" car dealers, who commonly overcharge vulnerable car buyers who are desperate for wheels to get to work for junky cars that break down soon after purchase. Some don't even make it home from the car lot.

The dealers typically also charge exorbitant interest rates on loans that vastly exceed the value of the cars. When the cars break down, the car buyers lose their only means of transportation to get to work, costing them their jobs. When they default on their loans, the dealers repossess the cars, and then resell them again and again. Each time, they make a high profit.

As reported in an award-winning series by Los Angeles Times reporter Ken Bensinger, some dealers make this predatory practice, known as "churning," a regular business practice. Too often, California's Department of Motor Vehicles fails to protect car buyers from such practices. Even if dealers are closed by the DMV, or declare bankruptcy, they often re-open again, sometimes in the exact same location, under a relative's name, and continue to engage in the same illegal conduct.
 

 
"Dori Hess sums up her situation in a made-for-TV sound bite. 'I bought a car I can't drive,' she said. Mechanically speaking, her new car is perfect. But legally, it's not drivable.

Hess bought a 2011 Acura TSX for about $18,000 in September [over 8 months ago]. 'I paid for it in full,' she said. And yet, the car is still unregistered. What's the hold up? The dealer. Hess says AutoNation Acura of Stevens Creek agreed to title and register the TSX for her. Her paperwork even lists a $29 service fee. But the dealer hasn't titled or registered the car. The expired plate is proof....Hess's Acura is screaming for a ticket.

'The DMV investigator told me I could be pulled over, and the car could be towed,' Hess said. Hess said the dealer didn't offer an explanation; it was stalling....

Rosemary Shahan, the consumer advocate who leads Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, is lobbying the Legislature to give drivers a break when dealers are careless with paperwork. 'You get penalized if they don't do their job,' she said."

NBC Bay Area report: "Dealer can't register car. Woman wants refund."

Unless Governor Brown vetoes a bill (AB 516) that is being backed by toll authorities and the California New Car Dealers Association, more innocent car buyers like Dori will be unfairly penalized when dealers sell them cars they cannot get properly registered, through no fault of their own.

Read more: Can't get your car registered? Stopped by Police? You are not alone.
 

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"The [United States] House [of Representatives] Ethics Committee has revealed it is investigating the conduct of U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, a Weatherford car dealer who authored an amendment that would have exempted his industry from a safety requirement and benefited his own business.

Williams' apparent conflict of interest was first reported by the Center for Public Integrity in November and led to a formal complaint being filed by the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington, D.C. legal watchdog.

In a brief press release, the House Ethics Committee announced Monday that it had "decided to extend the matter regarding" Williams, which was "transmitted to the committee by the Office of Congressional Ethics on May 13, 2016."

The Office of Congressional Ethics is a nonpartisan organization that vets complaints against members. The press release revealed for the first time publicly that the claims of misconduct leveled against Williams were under review by the House Ethics Committee.

The amendment was proposed as part of a broader transportation bill. Offered just before midnight on Nov. 11, 2015, it would have allowed automobile dealers to rent or loan out vehicles even if they were subject to safety recalls. Rental car companies, meanwhile, wouldn't get the same treatment. The measure passed the House of Representatives but after the Center wrote about it, the Williams proposal died in the conference process between the House and the Senate....

A spokesman for the House Ethics Committee declined comment. Punishment for violating House rules can include a formal reprimand, censure or even expulsion. Each action would require a vote of the full House.

Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, a group that advocates for vehicle safety, was highly critical of Williams' conduct. Shahan said she hopes the news of the committee's review 'sends a message that lawmakers should be representing the public and not their own personal interests.' "

Read more: Center for Public Integrity report: Car Dealer Congressman Subject of Ethics Probe

News release: issued by U.S. House Ethics Committee
 

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"... Rosemary Shahan, the founder and president of California-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety...said the first thing someone should do before buying a car is check its vehicle identification number, or VIN, and make sure it's not under a recall. Car owners who receive a recall notice should make an appointment to get their vehicle repaired as soon as possible and shouldn't assume that everything's OK just because they've been driving a car for many years without a problem.

'You just don't know,' she said. 'It's risky.'

If there is a wait list to get a car repaired, Shahan suggests asking for a loaner car to use until the parts are available. Some dealerships will provide one at no charge in this situation.

'All recalls you need to take seriously and this is no exception,' she said."

Read more: Roanoke Times: Takata recalls continue to hit dealerships
 

"In barely a month, more than 16 million vehicles using dangerously defective Takata airbags have been recalled, 4.4 million on Thursday alone. On top of the 24 million vehicles impacted by an earlier service action involving Takata, it's the biggest recall in automotive history.

But it's just one of the reasons why automotive safety recalls, in general, have hit record numbers two years in a row, with some observers worrying that 2016 could bring yet another all-time high. It's not just that so many dangerous defects are being uncovered that worries safety advocates most, however, but the fact that as many as one in five vehicles on U.S. roads have at least one unrepaired problem covered by a recall....

This week, the Rental Car Safety Act — inspired by the 2004 deaths of sisters Raechel and Jacqueline Houck — went into effect and now requires rental car companies to pull recalled vehicles out of their fleets until defects are fixed.

Similar efforts targeting car dealers have been stalled on Capitol Hill, however — though the nation's largest new car retail chain, AutoNation, now voluntarily halts sales until vehicles on its lots are repaired....

'The responsibility for the huge numbers of recalled cars lies squarely with the manufacturers and suppliers, who concealed defective, unsafe products,' not consumers, said Rosemary Shahan, an advocate with the California-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety.

And she calls on Congress to provide more funding to NHTSA to crack down on the industry and find problems sooner."

Read more: NBC News: "America's Recall Crisis"
 

On Valentine's Day in Silicon Valley, one of Google's experimental, self-driving cars sideswiped a city bus at 2 miles an hour. The incident marked the first time an autonomous car contributed to an accident on a public road, but did nothing to diminish the Obama administration's enthusiasm for driverless vehicles.

Some auto safety advocates fear the government is embracing the technology too quickly without assessing its actual capabilities and practical implications. With billions of dollars at stake and aggressive lobbying by the tech and automotive industries, safety advocates fear that regulators will allow themselves -- and the public -- to be steamrolled in the name of progress and innovation.

But some automotive safety advocates fear government is embracing the technology too quickly without carefully assessing its actual capabilities and practical implications. With billions of dollars at stake and aggressive lobbying by the tech and automotive industries, safety advocates worry that government regulators will allow themselves – and the public – to be steamrolled in the name of progress and innovation.

"These cars are not ready for prime time," said Rosemary Shahan, the founder and president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, a Sacramento, Calif.-based advocacy organization best known for spearheading passage of the state's automobile lemon law.

Autonomous cars, which have been in development since at least 2009, are known to struggle in inclement weather; rain, fog and snow disrupt their sensors. "We should be requiring them to prove that they're really ready" before rushing self-driving cars to consumers, Shahan said.

She's also worried about draft regulations in California that would make occupants responsible for all traffic violations that occur while a driverless car is operating in autonomous mode. Shahan said manufacturers "should be willing to assume the liability."
- See more at: http://www.fairwarning.org/2016/06/self-driving-cars/#sthash.HBf2EN0v.dpuf
 

   

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"Rental car companies are prohibited from distributing vehicles that have been recalled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under a new federal law that took effect Wednesday.

The new law requires rental companies with fleets of more than 35 vehicles to pull recalled cars from their rotations until they are repaired.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said he is happy to enforce the ban now that has Congress has codified the prohibition in federal law.

"When a family picks up a rental car on vacation, they should be able to expect it is free of any known safety defect," Foxx said in a statement. "I thank Congress and the safety advocates who helped turn this common-sense idea into law."

The ban on recalled cars does not apply to used car dealerships, despite a push from safety advocates to also apply the prohibition to them.

'I'm thrilled that the Safe Rental Car Act named for my beautiful, treasured daughters, Raechel and Jacqueline, is now the law of the land. But I'm worried about the loaner-car loophole for car dealers and remain committed to closing that dangerous safety gap,' Cally Houck said in a statement distributed on Wednesday by the Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety group.

'If this law was in existence when my cherished, beautiful daughter Jewel rented a car, she would still be alive today," added Alexander Brangman, whose 26-year-old daughter Jewel died in a 2014 crash while she was driving a rented 2001 Honda Civic.'"

Read more:
Detroit News: New law bans rental car companies from using recalled cars
 

"The Takata scandal also added to the troubled history of automotive air bags, which became widespread standard equipment in the 1990s and have saved thousands of lives. Many cars now have multiple air bags inside.

'Are air bags worth it? The answer is yes,' said Rosemary Shahan, founder of the advocacy group Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety. [Note: This was in reference to the overall protection provided by air bags, in reducing fatalities and debilitating injuries including brain injuries, injuries causing paralysis, facial injuries, and blindness, and is not a reflection regarding individual cases when they were defective and caused preventable injuries or deaths.]

But the safety innovation has come with a price. In the 1990s, for instance, more than 200 people — the majority of them children — died in accidents in which an air bag deployed with fatal force....

Shahan argued that the suppliers, automakers and dealers 'need to step up their game, and there's a lot more they could be doing to make it easier to get them fixed.'

Shahan, who said her 2007 Subaru Outback is among the Takata-equipped cars being recalled, suggested dealers provide evening and weekend hours to repair the air bags, or send mechanics to drivers' homes or places of work to fix the recalled cars."
 

"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As the safety crisis surrounding Takata's airbags that are prone to rupture has mushroomed, the Japanese auto supplier has insisted that the propellant in its airbags is safe.

But on Friday, testimony in a Florida court showed that Takata's own engineers discarded evidence that may have shown otherwise as long as 16 years ago. As early as 2000, around the time the propellant, which includes a compound called ammonium nitrate, was introduced into Takata models, failures occurred during internal testing.

But Takata altered its test data to hide the failures from its biggest customer, Honda, and a senior Takata executive ordered some of the evidence be discarded, the testimony said....

Allan Kam, a safety expert who worked for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 1975 to 2000, called Takata's supposed disposal of evidence and data manipulation "unbelievable."

......Safety advocates found it disturbing that Takata might have known about potential problems years ago, but not immediately reported them to customers, automakers and safety regulators.

'It's very damning,' said Rosemary Shahan, founder of Consumers for Auto Reliability. 'It's bad enough to have a faulty product, it's even worse to cover it up.'"

Read more: NY Times: Takata Discarded Evidence of Airbag Ruptures
 

"SACRAMENTO, Calif. —Google may be leading the way on driverless cars, but the company is threatening to pull the cars out of the California market if DMV requires a human operator behind the wheel....

Many consumer groups are skeptical of driverless cars.

'The DMV is wise and smart to require that a driver be behind the wheel, because if you look at what's been happening, there's been thousands of times when the drivers had to take control of the cars to prevent a crash,' said Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety."

Watch full report: KCRA-TV: Google urges DMV to change rules on driverless cars
 

Lemon laws only apply to vehicles still covered by the manufacturer's original warranty, although you may be able to make a claim later as long as you have documentation the problem began before the warranty expired. So hang on to those receipts from every visit to your dealer or mechanic. And get a record of every visit, whether the wrenches come out or not.

"Ask them to write it up even if they can't duplicate the problem," advises Steven Simons, a California consumer attorney specializing in lemon law. "Do it as soon as you pull into that service lane."

The reason for hiring an attorney is simple. Carmakers have a whole lot more legal firepower than you do, and their lawyers have been to this rodeo before.

"People should seek legal advice," says Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety. Shahan knows a thing or two about lemon law. She and her non-profit advocacy group initiated California's lemon law, which became a model for other states nationwide.

It's also critical to pick the right attorney. A quick Google search will bring up pages of lemon law attorneys, some of whom have the look of virtual ambulance chasers.

"Go to the website for the National Association for Consumer Advocates," said Shahan. "Those are the guys. The manufacturers know who the good ones are. A lot of the time, that's all it takes."

Read more: Car and Driver, Lemon Aid: "What you need to know about state lemon laws"
 

"Federal safety regulators on Friday said that a man had died in late December when an airbag made by Takata exploded in the vehicle he was driving.

It was the 10th death linked to what has become one of the country's biggest consumer safety problems.

In announcing the death, regulators also significantly expanded the recall of cars containing Takata airbags, adding five million to the 19 million already under recall and extending it to two manufacturers, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, that had not previously been affected....

Rosemary Shahan, the founder of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, said that regulators needed to be more forthcoming with which other cars might be at risk and that automakers needed to be more aggressive in fixing the cars.

'The people who are driving in those cars deserve to know,' Ms. Shahan said....

Four million more cars are being recalled because of results of testing conducted by Takata and Toyota on inflaters retrieved from cars under recall, he said. Last week, the two companies alerted the safety agency that three of the inflaters tested — all from RAV-4 sport utility vehicles — had ruptured. The [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] called for a recall of models that use similar inflaters...

Still, Friday's announcements left Ms. Shahan concerned over what is still to come.

'It looks pretty inevitable that all of these airbags with ammonium nitrate may be recalled,' Ms. Shahan said. 'You don't want to wait until there is a death and then figure it out. That's what we are all trying to prevent.'"

Read more: NY Times: Takata Air Bag Flaw Linked to 10th Death
 

"There's also the chance that some of these safety features could produce some unwanted, unintended consequences for drivers and injury claims.

Peterson says there could be a false sense of security among drivers when it comes to cars with improved safety features. 'Sometimes when people know a car is safer, they do foolish things,' he says.

And in the future, some of these tech-driven safety features could even be harmful. Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, says that the fact that newer vehicles have more safety features has an upside. But there's also a potential downside that could affect injury rates.

Shahan says there are growing concerns about the perception of safety surrounding self-driving cars. Even though these cars come equipped with more safety features, computers control a lot of those features. 'That can be very scary because you're not controlling the car anymore,' she says. 'You could have a 12-year-old hacker controlling your car. And the industry is being very resistant to attempts to making the software more secure.'

Corum says that frequency of accidents would be an important change in the overall injury claim costs trend, and that it could have a magnifying effect on the use of medical services and costs. 'We're very concerned that we may see an increase in frequency,' Corum says. 'It's a little early to be able to say that conclusively.'"

Read more: Injury claim costs on the rise despite safer roads, vehicles
 

   
 

WASHINGTON — Buried deep within a massive transportation bill that passed the House of Representatives is a little-noticed provision that won't have much effect on highway projects, but is of great interest to automobile dealers. The provision, an amendment offered just before midnight on Nov. 11, would allow dealers to rent or loan out vehicles even if they are subject to safety recalls. Rental car companies, meanwhile, don't get the same treatment under the proposed law.

In essence, the amendment would allow an auto dealer to loan you a vehicle under active recall while you are getting your own fixed for the same defect.

The man who offered the amendment is no stranger to car dealerships. In fact, that's his business. U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Austin, sponsored the amendment. In introducing it on the floor of the House, he noted, 'I am a second-generation auto dealer. I have been in the industry most of my life. I know it well.' The possibility that his action might be considered a conflict of interest was apparently not on his mind, though it certainly occurred to others.

'It seems to me that if it isn't illegal, if it isn't an ethics violation, it ought to be,' said Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, a consumer group. 'His amendment benefits nobody but car dealers. And he's a car dealer.' ....
 

"It's against federal law for new car dealers to sell recalled new cars, but it's not against federal law for dealers and rental car companies to rent or loan out these same potentially dangerous vehicles.

Congress is considering a new law that could change that practice.

The Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act would close the loophole that allows rental car companies to rent or sell recalled vehicles. The Senate passed the legislation in July, and the House passed an amended version of the act in early November. The Senate is expected to vote on the amended legislation before year's end as part of a larger multiyear federal transportation bill.

The act is named for sisters Raechel and Jacqueline Houck, who were killed in a fiery crash in 2004 involving a recalled Chrysler PT Cruiser they had rented from Enterprise. The crash happened while Raechel, 24, and Jacqueline, 20, were driving home to Santa Cruz, Calif., after visiting their parents and younger brother. Unbeknownst to them, the rented PT Cruiser the sisters were driving had been recalled for a defective steering component about a month earlier. During the drive, the car's steering hose started leaking fluid, which resulted in a fire under the hood that caused the girls to crash head-on with an 18-wheeler. Witnesses said the car was on fire before the crash....

Greg Scott, a lobbyist for the American Car Rental Association, says the group has backed the legislation for the past two years, after working out a compromise with the consumer groups over some of the act's stipulations.

'It's an unusual circumstance to have consumer groups trying to impose regulations on an industry, and then have the industry agree. But that's the way it's been since 2013,' Scott says. 'It's a testament to the car rental industry putting the safety of the customers and consumers first. Nobody should have to wonder when they go and rent a car whether or not there's a safety defect.' "

Read the report: "It's Legal under Federal Law to Rent Out Recalled Cars, but Maybe Not for Long"
 

 
First, the good news: Congress is days away from FINALLY passing the Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Rental Car Safety Act, to prohibit rental car companies from renting, loaning or selling recalled cars. The Senate passed the Act last month, and the House also passed it recently, as part of the national highway funding bill. That is expected to pass soon and go to President Obama for a signature. One of the best things about the Act -- it will give the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration the authority to crack down over violators, even if no one is injured or killed -- preventing tragic crashes like the one that killed Raechel and Jackie.

BUT -- near midnight on the day the Act passed out of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), a car dealer, got a special-interest loophole added to the bill to allow car dealers to rent or loan recalled ticking-time-bomb cars to consumers. It passed by a voice vote (with no record of who voted for or against it) when very few U.S. Representatives were still on the House Floor. Rep. Williams owns a Fiat-Chrysler dealership in Weatherford, Texas, west of Dallas. He boasted that he's been a dealer for decades. The only other member of the House who spoke in favor of the dangerous loophole is another car dealer, Rep. Kelly (R-Pennsylvania).

If the car dealer loophole stays in the bill, car dealers could rent, sell, or loan defective recalled vehicles to customers who leave their cars for repairs, without violating the new law. Dealers want this loophole so they can evade a crack-down by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to stop them from renting or loaning unsafe cars to the public. Imagine -- if you have a car that is being recalled because the defective Takata air bags may explode and slice through your neck, the dealer could rent or loan you a car with the exact same safety defect.

Who is opposed to the car dealers' lethal car loophole?

• Carol "Cally" Houck, Mother of Raechel and Jacqueline Houck, who were killed by an unrepaired recalled rental car
   
• Rep. Lois Capps (D-California) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois), who spoke against the dealer loophole and for protecting consumers from unsafe rental and loaner cars
   
• Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety
   
• The rental car industry, including all the major rental car companies and the American Car Rental Association (except Rent-a-Wreck)
   
• Other non-profit consumer groups and safety organizations
   

What you can you do to oppose the dealer loophole?

• Call your members of Congress and urge them to oppose this dangerous loophole. Here's the number to call at the U.S. Capitol, where they can put you in touch with your member of Congress: 202-225-3121. Message: "I think rental and loaner cars should be safe to drive. Please OPPOSE the car dealer loophole in the DRIVE Act."
   
• Sign Cally Houck's petition on Change.org, and send a message to U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, who is from Michigan and close to auto manufacturers and car dealers. He is expected to play a crucial role in deciding whether the dealers get their dangerous loaner car loophole.

   

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"Each of Detroit's Big Three automakers offer a discount on new vehicles for employees, their families and friends.

But only one, Fiat Chrysler, requires that those using the discount give up their constitutional right to a jury trial in return for a few hundred bucks in savings.

'It's like they're doing you a favor and, by the way, they're taking away your right to sue,' said Rosemary Shahan, president of the Sacramento advocacy group Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety. 'This discount is like the piece of cheese on the trap that kills the mouse.'

'The purpose of this discount isn't to trick people into not being able to litigate against us,' said Rick Deneau, a Fiat Chrysler spokesman. 'We weren't trying to figure out some diabolical way for people not to sue us.'

Such clauses in consumer contracts aren't new. If you have a cellphone, a cable line or a credit card, you've almost certainly agreed to waive your right to sue or join a class-action lawsuit as a condition of service.

But until now, experts say, no major car manufacturer has sought to encourage customers to forgo their right to sue.

'This takes everything to a whole new level,' said Hal Rosner, one of California's top lawyers specializing in auto-fraud cases....

Many large businesses prefer arbitration because settlements are limited and because professional arbitrators often favor the corporate side. Arbitrators' fees are typically paid by the company in a dispute.

A 2007 report by Public Citizen found that over a four-year period, arbitrators ruled in favor of banks and credit card companies 94% of the time in disputes with California consumers.

Read more: LA Times: A Fiat Chrysler discount will cost you the right to sue
 

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"Breese Berkowitz of Walnut Creek bought a new 2015 Passat TDI on Sept. 12 to replace an aging Toyota Prius hybrid. Her family's other car is a plug-in Prius, and she wanted something environmentally friendly but not another plug-in because she needed a longer range. Volkswagen had been advertising its "clean diesel" technology and Berkowitz thought the Passat - the "Eco-friendly Car of the Year," according to Cars.com - offered great gas mileage without sacrificing performance.

On Sept. 18, she and everyone learned it was a fraud, that Volkswagen had installed so-called defeat devices on 11 million Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars worldwide, including about 482,000 in the United States. On the road, the cars were producing up to 40 times the nitrogen oxide pollutants allowed in the United States. But the devices allowed them to pass emissions tests....

Elizabeth Cabraser, a San Francisco attorney who has filed lawsuits against Volkswagen on behalf of consumers, said owners and lessors of tainted Volkswagen and Audi models should have the choice of "turning the car back in and getting full value or keeping the car, getting the fix and getting compensation" to make up for reduced mileage and/or performance....

Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, had this advice for people with the tainted cars: 'Drive as little as possible for your own and the environment's sake. Don't breathe in the fumes and get some legal advice.'"

Read more: SF Chronicle: Advice for owners of emissions-spewing VWs and Audis
 

"AutoNation, the country's largest auto retailer, said Tuesday it will no longer sell any new or used vehicles under recall that have not been repaired.

'There's no way to expect that customers would or should know of every safety recall on every vehicle they might purchase, so we will ensure that our vehicles have all recalls completed,' said Mike Jackson, CEO of the Fort Lauderdale-based retailer. 'We make it our responsibility as a retailer to identify those vehicles and remove them from the market until their safety issues have been addressed.'

The move was hailed by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who co-authored a bill to prevent used-car dealers from selling cars under recall, who said in a statement it is a 'significant, common-sense step to ensure its customers are not purchasing cars that put themselves, their families, and all others who share the roads at risk from potentially lethal safety defects.'

Calling it 'a historic commitment to safety,' the president of one auto consumer protection advocacy organization, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, lauded Jackson's move.

'This is a huge breakthrough, particularly since AutoNation's CEO is speaking publicly about the responsibility of dealers to be part of the safety recall solution and to ensure that unsafe, recalled used cars are not only not sold to consumers, but also not sold at wholesale, until they are safe,' said Rosemary Shahan."

Read more: USA Today report: AutoNation Halts Sales of Recalled Vehicles
 

"A Senate panel killed a proposal to permit companies to continue renting vehicles that have been recalled, a measure criticized by consumer groups, automakers and even some rental-car companies.

The Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee instead voted Wednesday to require cars be repaired before they're rented.

The change resulted from an amendment by Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat. It modified a bill, introduced last week by Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, that would have allowed rentals with known safety defects as long as companies disclosed the open recalls to customers.

'When consumers and families drive a rental car off the lot, they should be able to do so with the confidence that car is safe to drive, and we're one step closer to that peace of mind today,' McCaskill said....

In the past week, Honda Motor Co. joined General Motors Co. as the second automaker to back the Democrats' push for a ban on rentals with safety defects.

The American Car Rental Association, a trade group that includes Hertz Global Holdings Inc., Avis Budget Group Inc. and Enterprise Holdings, described the original Republican bill as a 'significant step back in consumer protection' compared with current industry practices in a July 13 letter to committee leaders."

Read more: Bloomberg: Senate Panel Drops Plan to Allow Rentals of Recalled Vehicles
 

"Advocates also note that the Thune bill would not bar the practice of dealers selling unrepaired recalled used cars or rental cars lending unrepaired vehicles — but would only require notification. Rosemary Shahan, president of California-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, said that would put families and business travelers in a difficult spot: forgo a rental or take a vehicle that could be unsafe.

"Every year millions of consumers are renting cars with the expectation that they will not be given a vehicle that has a deadly safety defect and has not yet been repaired. It is critically important for rental car companies to get recalled vehicles fixed before they offer them to the unsuspecting public," said Jack Gillis, director of Public Affairs for the Consumer Federation of America.

Read more: Detroit News: "Advocates slam GOP auto safety approach"
 

"Two consumer groups have asked California's attorney general and the Department of Motor Vehicles to investigate the sales practices of used car giant CarMax.

The California Public Interest Research Group and the Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety Foundation said the auto retailer regularly sells used vehicles that have been recalled but not repaired -- despite advertising that its autos undergo rigorous 'quality' inspections....

Researchers visited two of CarMax's 18 stores in California, one in Oxnard and the other in Sacramento, and cross-checked vehicle identification numbers with a federal database that tracks whether a vehicle has been recalled and if it has been repaired.

They found that more than 10% of the 455 cars at the Oxnard CarMax had unrepaired recalls. Seven were subject to two or more recalls. In Sacramento, 9% of the 386 vehicles had unrepaired recalls.

The more than a dozen safety defects included: springs that can break and puncture the fuel tank, causing a fire; doors that can unlatch without warning and slide open in traffic; bolts that might break, causing an engine stall in traffic; and air bags that may fail to inflate in a crash...

The consumer groups, however, claim CarMax's sales system might have potential violations of California regulations, including 'bait and switch' infractions, where a consumer is lured to the dealer with the promise of a car that is safe and reliable and then is switched to a defective, unsafe vehicle.

Other infractions might include false and misleading advertising and violations of vehicle code provisions that prohibit sales of vehicles that fail to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, they said in their report."

Read more: "LA Times: CA groups say CarMax sells unsafe cars"
 

"Two Sacramento advocacy groups released a report on Wednesday citing what they called CarMax's dangerous practices and called on state officials to investigate the auto seller's in-state operations. Specifically, the groups targeted CarMax's 'sales of unrepaired, defective vehicles that are subject to federal safety recalls.'

CALPIRG and CARS called on Attorney General Kamala Harris and the Department of Motor Vehicles to investigate CarMax practices regarding 'advertising and sales of unrepaired recalled cars, and take all appropriate action.' 'CarMax is playing recalled car roulette with its customers' lives and endangering the safety of others who share the roads,' said Rosemary Shahan, CARS president....

Citing information that CALPIRG obtained from the CarMax store on Stockton Boulevard, the report released Wednesday said 'approximately 9 percent of all cars recently offered for sale at that location had an unrepaired federal safety recall.' The report said 34 of 386 vehicles for sale at a local CarMax on May 26-27 were subject to safety recalls. The report listed defects including engines that could stall, possible air bag failure, worn parts, key systems failures and bad electrical connections.

At the CarMax store in Oxnard, 46 of 455 vehicles for sale on May 20-21 were subject to federal safety recalls, according to the report."

Read more: "Sacramento Bee: CA groups say CarMax sells unsafe used vehicles"
 

 
"A measure pushed by auto dealers that would have created rules for how they sell recalled used vehicles was pulled by its author suddenly Friday even though it sailed through the Assembly on a 76-0 vote earlier this month. Assemblyman Rich Gordon (D-San Mateo) said he notified the state Senate that he plans to hold AB 287, titled the Consumer Automotive Recall Safety Act, until next year to see if he can establish a consensus among dealers and a growing opposition.

Nearly every automaker, most rental car companies and multiple consumer groups opposed the bill.

"Automakers are pleased and pledge to work with the author during the interim to advance efforts to ensure every recalled vehicle gets fixed," said Daniel Gage, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and other automakers...

[The car dealers' bill] would have given dealers legal protection if they knowingly sold an unrepaired vehicle that was in a mishap caused by the defect, said Brian Chase, president of Consumer Attorneys of California....

'The whole concept of allowing dealers to sell recalled cars is bad news for consumers,' said Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety. 'No one else in the industry thought this was a good idea.' "

Read more: Los Angeles Times: CA Assembly member pulls auto recall bill as opposition mounts
 

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"Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS), does not believe the state-level bills will help keep the most dangerous recalled cars off the road. California's disclosure bill, for instance, would only bar dealers from selling recalled vehicles when manufacturers issue 'Do Not Drive' warnings or when a recalled used car is the same make as the new car dealer's franchise....

According to Auto Alliance data submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), between 2000 and 2013, auto manufacturers issued 'Do Not Drive' warnings for a mere 1 percent of all safety recalls, and those were not even for the most unsafe defects. The Chrysler PT Cruiser that killed the Houck sisters, for instance, had not been issued a 'Do Not Drive' warning....

Bernard Brown, a founding member of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, a consumer attorney organization that opposes New Jersey and California's bills, feels it is misleading to argue that these disclosure bills are better than the status quo. 'The reason for these bills is to effectively make it legal to sell recalled cars,' Brown said. While there may not be a specific statute around the sale of recalled used vehicles, Brown continued, there is anti-fraud, misrepresentation, negligence, or other laws in every state that consumers can sue under if a dealer knowingly sells a car with an undisclosed and unperformed safety recall defect that causes injury or death. 'These [disclosure] bills would greatly undermine existing protections. On its face it may seem like they're better, but they're not,' said Brown. 'They're decidedly worse.'

'These laws are effectively 'Get Out of Jail Free' cards for dealers,' concurred Taras Rudnitsky, a former car safety engineer who now works as a lawyer for victims of vehicle defects."

Read more: American Prospect: "Our safety recall system is broken. Here's how not to fix it."
 

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"Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, has introduced a bipartisan bill that would prohibit rental car companies from renting or selling recalled vehicles to consumers before they are fixed.

California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein support a Senate version of the bill introduced last year, also called the Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act.

The legislation is named after two Ojai sisters killed in a crash while in a recalled rental car.

The women's mother, Cally Houck, has been working with Sacramento-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety since a civil jury ruled in her favor in June 2010. She is advocating for state and federal legislation to stop the practice...

An opposition bill in the California Assembly would allow car dealers to sell about 99 percent of recalled used cars to consumers without having to get them repaired first. Shahan called the opposition bill 'scary.' "

Read more: Ventura County Star: Capps introduces rental car safety bill named after Ojai sisters killed in crash
 

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"Consumer advocates say AB287 limits dealer responsibility by preventing the sale of recalled cars for which the manufacturer issued a do-not-sell or do-not-drive notice.

Honda, for example, has not made a do-not-drive recommendation 'as part of an automotive recall in recent history,' according to company spokesman Chris Martin. Last year, the company recalled 8.1 million defective air bag inflators, and defective air bag inflators in several cars from Honda and other automakers have been blamed for six deaths.

'There's no federal definition of do-not-drive,' said Rosemary Shahan, president of the consumer advocacy group Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety in Sacramento, which opposes AB287 and supports the national RECALL Act and Houck bills."

Read more: Orange County Register: A record 64 million cars were recalled last year
 

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"Washington — Four U.S. senators on Friday reintroduced legislation that would bar rental car companies from leasing unrepaired recalled vehicles — the third straight year they have proposed the plan.

Sens. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., would require rental companies to follow the same rules that currently apply to new car dealers, who can't sell a unrepaired recalled vehicle. The bill is backed by the Obama administration and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

Reps. Lois Capps, D-Calif., Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C. and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., also introduced an identical bill in the House....

'The American public is overwhelmingly in favor of ensuring that rental cars are safe and free from lethal safety defects,' said Rosemary Shahan, President of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety. 'About 95 percent of the rental car industry is also in favor. This is a common-sense bill that should be passing unanimously. The president is eager to sign it. It's time for Congress to get off the dime.'

The legislation is named after two sisters from Santa Cruz, Calif., Raechel and Jacqueline Houck, who were killed in 2004 when a recalled PT Cruiser they had rented from Enterprise caught fire and hit a truck.

'It's been over ten years since my beautiful, treasured daughters Raechel and Jacqueline were killed by an unsafe, recalled rental car," said Carol "Cally" Houck. "It's time for Congress to act, to protect all families from suffering our devastating loss.' "

Read more: Detroit News: Four Senators Reintroduce Rental Car Recall Bill
 

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"A new bill facing the Senate would ban car rental companies from offering vehicles to consumers until outstanding recall problems are repaired.

Dubbed the Rachel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act of 2015, the measure is named after two sisters killed in the 2004 crash of a Chrysler PT Cruiser they had rented which had a serious defect that hadn't been fixed.

Congress 'needs to take this seriously,' said Rosemary Shahan, the president of California-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety. The problem is all the more serious, she said, with auto recalls hitting record numbers last year, more than 60 million vehicles, in all. According to data tracking service CarFax, as much as a third of all vehicles facing recall typically go unrepaired, a problem that can lead to crashes, injuries and fatalities, sometimes years after the defect was first identified.

Read more: TheDetroitBureau.com: Senate Bill Would Bar Rental of Vehicles with Unrepaired Recall Problems
 

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"Dealers are fighting back against consumer pressure to disclose and fix all recalls on cars they want to sell."

Watch:
   

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"Consumer advocate Rosemary Shahan has spent years trying to get laws passed forcing dealers to make the repairs..."

Watch: Car dealer spokesperson admits the car dealers' special-interest bill would allow dealers to sell used cars with lethal safety defects, like air bags that explode with excessive force and spew shrapnel at drivers and passengers, causing blindness or causing them to bleed to death.
 

KOVR-TV Call Kurtis report: Consumer groups fight against car dealer safety recall bill

 

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