FCA Wants NHTSA To Cancel Public Hearing, NHTSA Says No

Next month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will be holding a public hearing to probe Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' handling of 20 different recalls covering 11 million vehicles since 2013. The agency is concerned about the completion rates and other issues on these recalls.

But FCA believes this hearing should be skipped. In a 19-page response to questions from NHTSA that was released yesterday, the company argues that its overall recall completion rate is "nearly the best in the industry, with 77 percent. The response goes onto state that they are compliant with existing regulations and are in the process of implementing new programs to improve their completion rate.

FCA says their way “to review and identify with NHTSA input, and implement changes based on the learnings obviate the need for a hearing.”

But NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind tells The Detroit News that the hearing is still on.

“Twenty recalls are a problem — 10 million vehicles. There’s a pattern here of things we’re concerned about. And they weren’t just little things — they were big things including major safety issues related to fire, door latches that could open up when people were driving. It’s not just, ‘Oh, they were late on something.’ If they didn’t start, it was late, it means all that time people are at risk. And they told us something different,” said Rosekind.

Source: The Detroit News