Millions of older cars, trucks with dangerous defects aren’t getting fixed
“The widespread practice of selling these dangerous vehicles without first fixing obvious and identified safety hazards unacceptably shifts the burden from manufacturers and used car sellers onto the party least equipped to address the danger – the consumer,” Michael Brooks, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, said in a statement. He described the outlook to improve the repair rate for older cars and trucks as “bleak.”
By Matthew Dolan
September 20, 2024
On a dark winter morning, Jeffrey Wu nearly lost his life stopping for gas.
Wu was driving his Jeep Grand Cherokee to work on March 4, 2022, when he pulled over to fill up about 20 miles south of Minneapolis.
He had a moment of forgetfulness as he tried to drive away from the Kwik Trip without removing the pump nozzle from his fuel tank. So the dairy plant worker said he stopped and stepped out again into the frigid predawn.
Little did Wu know that the way he tried to put his SUV into park would lead to tragedy.
Six years before, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had issued a recall on his 2014 Jeep for problems related to the gear shifter and parking the vehicle. The problem was so pervasive that industry insiders already dubbed it the “park-to-reverse defect.” All it would take is a quick software update to fix. Wu later said he had no idea about the danger and never received a recall notice to get the repair done.
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