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Recalls
Regional/Geographic Recall Overview
The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 treats all vehicles equally regardless of where they are sold or registered. There is no specific statutory provision providing for recalling vehicles in one part of the country and not another. For the first 25 years of its history enforcing the Safety Act, NHTSA required manufacturers to do national recalls. Given the mobility of society with cars traveling from one area to another, regional recalls made little sense if safety was a priority.
Buyback Recalls Overview
The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 requires manufacturers to remedy vehicles with safety defects or failures to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard(s). 49 U.S.C, § 30120 The Act contemplates that some safety defects or standard noncompliances may be too difficult or too expensive to repair and gives the manufacturer the option of refunding the purchase price or replacing the vehicle as follows.
Wisconsin Attorney General to DOT Secretary Mineta on Regional Recalls 11-15-05
Click here to view the letter
Info on Car Safety Off-Limits to Public
BY JEFFREY McCRACKEN
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
August 18, 2004
The federal agency that oversees auto safety has decided — based largely on arguments from automakers and their Washington, D.C., lobbyists — that reams of data relating to unsafe automobiles or defective parts will not be available to the public.
Safety Scandal Shames Mitsubishi
New Cover-Up Allegations Hobble Japan’s Fourth-Largest Automaker
By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 6, 2004; Page E01
YOKOHAMA, Japan — Shiho Okamoto was killed while walking home from a neighborhood video store with her two young sons when a 220-pound wheel fell off the front axle of a Mitsubishi truck moving behind her. The wheel crushed Okamoto’s skull and spine.
Former Mitsubishi President is Arrested
By YURI KAGEYAMA
AP BUSINESS WRITER
TOKYO — Katsuhiko Kawasoe, the former president of scandal-plagued Mitsubishi Motors Corp., was arrested Thursday on charges related to a cover-up of auto defects suspected in a fatal accident.
Five other Mitsubishi officials, including a former president and vice president of the automaker’s truck unit, were also arrested, and police said all six were in custody.
Mitsubishi Motors Admits Decades-Long Defect Cover-Up
Japanese automaker adds 26 defects to four made public in 2000.
11:26 AM CDT on Wednesday, June 2, 2004
Associated Press
TOKYO Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors hid 26 defects in its cars from regulators for years in addition to four problems it publicized in 2000 to avoid issuing recalls for the vehicles, the company said Wednesday.
The automaker said it would immediately start recalling the affected cars, estimated at over 160,000 and most of them sold in Japan.
Transmissions Prompt Large Honda Recall
04/15/04
Christopher Jensen
Plain Dealer Auto Editor
Honda is recalling about 600,000 of its popular sport utilities and minivans in the U.S. and Canada because the automatic transmissions may fail, the automaker announced Wednesday.
The five-speed transmissions made in Russells Point, Ohio, near Marysville are used in some 2002, 2003 and early 2004 Honda Odyssey minivans as well as 2003 and early 2004 Honda Pilot sport utilities. Also covered are 2001 and 2002 Acura MDX sport utilities.
Consumer Groups Challenge the Use of Regional Safety Recalls
By CHERYL JENSEN
If two consumer groups prevail in their suit against the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, motorists could feel more confident that safety defects possibly affecting their vehicles are not falling into a geographical black hole.
Regional Recalls by Manufacturer
AMERICAN HONDA MOTOR CO., INC.
NHTSA Recall No. 05V-385/Acura Recall No. P92
Vehicles: 2001-02 Acura MDX manufactured from August 2000 through December 2001.
Population: 22,861 sport utility vehicles sold or currently registered in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and District of Columbia.