The Chevy Impala already gets dumped on for being a fleet queen holdover, but a Kansas City Star investigation reveals that it might not actually be fleety enough for buyers like Enterprise Rent-A-Car. It turns out that Enterprise ordered 66,000 Impalas from GM without the side airbags that are standard equipment on all retail Impalas. Worse still, hundreds of these Impalas were sold with the side bags listed as standard equipment. Enterprise saved $175 on each Impala by deleting the bags, for a total of about $11.5 million in savings. Thanks to the misleading online sales though, Enterprise is offering to buy back the nearly 750 Impalas sold under false pretenses for $750 over Kelly Blue Book Value. Beyond that effort though, Enterprise is defending its standard safety feature deletion by arguing that it never violated any federal mandate. Congratulations, guys, you aren’t criminals. Meanwhile, when it comes to buying fleet vehicles, buyer beware.
“If it were up to me, I would ban drivers from texting,” the Secretary of Transportation tells the LA Times. Happily, LaHood does not have the authority to unilaterally enact laws, so, “that’s why I have decided to convene a summit of senior transportation officials, safety advocates, law enforcement representatives, members of Congress and academics who study these matters.” The conference is expected to yield “concrete steps” to curb the threat of distracted drivers. Like an education and awareness campaign. Meanwhile, the Avoiding Life-Endangering and Reckless Texting by Drivers Act (ALERT Drivers, geddit?) has been introduced to the Senate. This bill would force states to pass texting-while-driving bans (with DOT-set minimum penalties) within two years of its passage, or risk losing 25 percent of their federal highway funding. Just like the good old double-nickel days. Meanwhile, has anyone thought about the difficulty in enforcing such a ban?
Am I the only one who finds it ironic that TTAC received the press release for National Stop Red Light Running Week arrived in the middle of same (August 2 – 8)? Equally strangely, the PR flack writing this tardy tiresome tirade seems to see red. “While the message is sound, this particular safety campaign is unlike traditional safety programs like ‘Click It or Ticket.’ The ‘Stop on Red Week’ program has a decidedly corporate slant. The big push behind this week appears to be coming from the photo enforcement industry. These are the companies that install red light cameras. Photo enforcement is right in the middle of the ‘safety vs. revenue’ debate taking place nationwide. It’s likely this campaign is mostly about telling the public how necessary photo enforcement is and encouraging towns to install such cameras.” How long before THAT gets pulled? Meanwhile, how about some common sense tips on how not to run a red light? Seriously.
The Associated Press provides an update on the fallout from the 2007 Ford Explorer rollover suit. When all’s said and done, the plaintiffs’ lawyers received $25 million for their time. The clients, not so much. “In exchange for dropping the lawsuit that alleged rollover problems unfairly diminished the resale value of Explorers, Ford customers could receive a $500 discount coupon toward the purchase of a new SUV or a $300 coupon to buy another Ford vehicle. Consumers had until April 29, 2008 to apply for the coupons . . . A report filed with the court in June showed just 75 coupons have been redeemed for a combined $37,500.” Ford spokeswoman Kristen Kinley said the settlement prevented the company from discussing the case. “We are pleased to have finally settled this case with the plaintiffs and to finally put this behind us,” Kinley said. “We are also pleased to hear that some people took advantage of the vouchers to purchase a new Ford Explorer.” I bet they are. Ford dodged a $500 million bullet, back when $500 million was real money. [thanks to The Walking Eye for the link]
Physics Central’s Buzz Blog reports on a study which shows that breaking the rules can be the best way to help keep traffic flowing. The study by Sweden’s Umea University modeled traffic composed of “normal” pedestrians and “rule breakers,” finding that when over 60 percent of traffic consists of “rule breakers” things actually move more efficiently. “The interesting finding is that if most of the people are law-abiding, and you have a certain amount of people who are breaking the rule, then you are actually getting the minimum chance of a [traffic] jam,” says one of the study’s authors. Exactly following the rules of the road can cause traffic to build up behind a single negligent driver (who hasn’t seen that happen), and often the jam is only relieved by a driver breaking the speed limit to pass. Of course, there are other studies coming out which indicate that higher speed limits lead to higher death rates, but death only hurts for a few seconds. The pain of being stuck in a jam of mindless motorists can feel like an eternity.
The Ad Hoc Committee of Consumer Victims of Chrysler is a group of litigants left claimless by a federal bankruptcy judge’s fiat, when Chrysler jettisoned “old Chrysler’s” product liability. Quietly into that long good night they will not go. Earlier this week, the group attempted to hand-deliver a protest letter to Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne prior to the new company’s first-ever Board of Directors’ meeting. The company’s head of security intercepted the missive, promising to give it to Sergio [video here]. While they await an official response *crickets chirping* the group has released this none-too-subtle silent movie, attempting to shame the car company into honoring its legal obligations.
I can’t say that I’ve seen everything. But sometimes I feel as if I have. For example, the morning after we publish Bob Elton’s piece on Chrysler’s wanton destruction of its historical archives, the Detroit Free Pressruns a piece on the future—or lack thereof—for feral cats hanging out on the grounds of Chrysler’s Sterling Heights factory. As a former English resident alien, I know what’s it’s like to live in a country where animal welfare gets more play than the challenges faced by humans. Still, this is one for the record books: “‘We try to help them out a little,’ said Claudia Valentine, 55, a veteran skilled trades worker on the night shift at the plant. She said workers feed the cats nightly and do such things as setting insulated crates outside in winter. But the cats have multiplied and are causing safety problems, a few being run over by workers or caught in the conveyor system.” We also learn, “Feral females spend most of their lives pregnant or nursing. In seven years, one female cat and her offspring can yield 420,000 cats.” In the same sense, I suppose, that Chrysler can become profitable. Just sayin’.
Very funny, guys. We get it. The Truth About Cars takes you to task for your shoddy “investigative” report into the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA). You respond with an editorial called “The Truth About Cars and Cellphones.” Inside joke or not, we stand by our condemnation. First, conflating cell phone use with other distractions—excoriating drivers who “juggle hot coffee and a Mc-whatever or attend to personal grooming in the rearview mirror”—is both lazy AND stupid. Second, repeating your dubious charges—that the NHTSA bent to political pressure instead of faithfully discharging its duties—does not make them so. And third, semantics are the second-to-last refuge of a scoundrel. To wit:
The Ad Council and the NHTSA sent me a link to their campaign: “Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving.” The ad and seat belt folks want Joe and Jane Q. Public to sign an e-pledge promising not to drive buzzed. Yes, well, what’s the definition of “buzzed”? At first, I thought it meant driving under the influence of non-alcoholic drugs: cannabis, crack, coke, Clonazepam, etc. (and those are just the “c”s). More poetically (though far less likely), I wondered if it had something to do with the after-effects of doing the horizontal mambo with Jill Wagner or [your choice of homosexual heartthrob here]. But no. The campaigners contend that “Buzzed driving is drunk driving.” So why not call it drunk driving? Theory: they’re trying to position the “technical” debate downwards, to the lowest possible Blood Alcohol Content level. Which ignores the simple, inescapable fact that the majority of drunk drivers are habitual offenders who are WAY over the legal limit. SUBMIT? Not without a little clarification, thanks. What say you?
1) Be attentive, be aware. Scan the sides of the road, not just straight ahead (use your peripheral vision).
2. When you see deer (whether standing or moving), warning signs or simply suspect you may be driving through their habitat, slow down.
3) Use your high-beams (dim where appropriate).
4) DO NOT SWERVE to avoid a collision with a deer. A sudden loss of vehicle control is far more dangerous than animal impact. Brake and hold the wheel straight.
5) Do not stop in the middle of the road post-Bambicide. Move your vehicle off the road and out of [further] harm’s way as soon as possible.
In fairness, the Aveo hatch is easier to watch crashing (Both EuroNCAP). Easier on the eyes in general, in the case of the first-gen hatch. Still, who’s up for tasting some brave manouever Baruth-style in one of these? And no, this isn’t a Euro ringer. This IIHS Aveo test is just as scary. You’re a brave man, Jack.
Sean Kane of safetyresearch.net gave us the heads-up on a move to put warning labels on products manufactured by pre-C-11 Chrysler.
WARNING! This vehicle was produced prior to the date when the Chrysler bankruptcy was approved. If you buy this vehicle and are injured or killed, even if your injuries were caused by the manufacturer, you or your survivors will not be able to recover your losses by taking action against the manufacturer. If your passengers are injured or killed, even if their injuries were caused by the manufacturer, they and their survivors will not be able to recover their losses by taking action against the manufacturer.
There are some seriously mixed messages coming out of the NHTSA today, which perfectly illustrate what I like to call the tyranny of safety. On the one hand, the NHTSA announced today that overall traffic fatalities dropped by nearly ten percent in 2008, hitting the lowest levels per vehicle mile traveled since 1961. Estimates for the first quarter of 2009 show the high-single digit downward trend continuing into this year. In 2008, the NHTSA logged 1.27 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. Which, based on the number of cars and the shoddy quality of driving one encounters in this country (sorry, it’s true), is a remarkable statistic. But, for safety nuts like SecTrans Ray LaHood, it’s not enough. “While the number of highway deaths in America has decreased, we still have a long way to go,” he tells his press release. And how are we going to go about protecting Americans from the lowest fatality rates since JFK was elected and the Beatles were still playing the Cavern? Gizmos, baby, gizmos.
According to Time magazine, a federal highway bill moving through congress would require mandatory breathalyzer ignition interlocks be placed on all cars belonging to DUI convicts. The interlocks would require the driver to pass a blood-alcohol level breath test before an equipped vehicle can be started. Currently several states require interlocks for citizens convicted of DUIs, while others require them only for repeat offenders. The highway bill would block federal infrastructure funds to any state that does not approve mandatory interlock laws. Mandatory interlocks have been a hotly–debated topic for some time, but few had expected the old highway-funding canard to be warmed up for the battle.
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