Chrysler Changing How It Notifies Owners About Recalls
(KPIX 5) -- One of the nation's biggest carmakers is promising to change the way it notifies drivers about recalls, following a KPIX 5 ConsumerWatch investigation.
Over the summer, Gerri Glowski said her brand-new Chrysler 200 started stalling.
When she brought it to her local dealership, Glowski said "they couldn't find anything wrong with it" and returned the vehicle to her.
Two weeks later, she said it stalled again, but she also lost several critical car functions. "There was a car behind me and the emergency blinkers would not go on and the power steering would not work as well," Glowski told ConsumerWatch. "I could have caused a multi-vehicle accident."
Concerned, Glowski turned to Google and found scores of other Chrysler 200 owners with the same issue. She also learned Chrysler was supposed to have issued a recall a week earlier. However, when she called her dealer with her discovery, she says she was dismissed.
"The service manager said to me 'there is no recall,'" Glowski recalled.
According to documents filed by Chrysler with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, Chrysler planned to notify car owners of the recall on September 19, 2015. The carmaker told the government it would notify dealers on September 3rd.
"The dealer should be the one telling the consumer 'Oh, there's a problem with your car,' not the other way around," according to Rosemary Shahan of the Center for Auto Reliability and Safety.
Shahan also criticized Chrysler's record for notifying customers of other recalls. "This is part of a pattern with Fiat Chrysler," Shahan told ConsumerWatch. "They have run afoul of the law over, and over, and over again."
Last year, the carmaker admitted it failed to notify owners and dealers of a known fuel tank problem with its Chrysler 300 that caused that model to stall in traffic.
A KPIX 5 investigation revealed that five months after Chrysler told regulators it had issued an extended fuel tank warranty and came up with a free fix, neither owners nor dealers had been notified.
Earlier this year, Chrysler agreed to pay a record $105 million fine for "failing to repair vehicles with safety defects."
After ConsumerWatch contacted Chrysler about Glowski's problem, the carmaker rush-ordered the necessary parts. It also issued a statement saying it "acknowledges with regret that customers were advised of this campaign six days after the required date."
Chrysler has promised to "quickly (move) forward with meaningful changes to our recall execution process."
The automaker contends it did, however, inform Glowski's dealer of the pending recall before she brought the car in. The dealer later told ConsumerWatch "there may have been some confusion," when an employee told Glowski there was no recall.
