Fiat Chrysler face tough questions recall record

Fiat Chrysler put its own customers and other drivers at risk by being too slow to notify drivers about faults and failing to provide critical information to the authorities, US regulators said on Thursday, in their most trenchant attack yet on the company.

Officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration were speaking at a rare public hearing over the record of the company, the US's fourth biggest carmaker by sales. Fiat Chrysler has had a far more openly combative relationship than other carmakers with the regulator.

Problems over what officials called the “timeliness and effectiveness” of the company’s handling of a spate of recalls of its vehicles reflect wider concerns. Most carmakers end up repairing only a small proportion of the vehicles covered by each recall.

"Fiat Chrysler has repeatedly failed to notify owners about recalls in a timely manner, in some cases weeks or months beyond the deadline to do so," Jennifer Timian, head of the NHTSA's office of recall management, told the hearing.

“Fiat Chrysler has also repeatedly failed to keep NHTSA updated on the timing for its recall notifications to owners and dealers and failed to provide NHTSA with copies of these notices, as required by law.”

The public hearing is the first since 2012, when the NHTSA held a hearing about Wildfire, an importer of Chinese motorcycles.

The decision to hold the hearing - and NHTSA's uncompromising language - reflect the regulator's determination to avoid a repetition of its failure to order recalls for a series of General Motors vehicles with defective ignition switches.

The regulator, which knew for years about concerns surrounding a series of crashes but failed to take decisive action, has faced criticism over the ignition switch issue. At least 119 people are now known to have died as a result of the fault, which could lead a vehicle’s ignition switch to leave the “run” position while the vehicle was being driven, cutting off both the engine and safety systems such as the airbags.

Joshua Neff, senior safety recall analyst at the NHTSA, said that in at least two cases - relating to defective transmissions and possible tyre failures at high speeds - Fiat Chrysler had "waited months" before recalling defective vehicles.

Once it had initiated recalls, Mr Neff added, in seven cases Fiat Chrysler failed to notify owners within the required 60 days.

Carmakers are required to notify the NHTSA about their recalls, but Mr Neff said: “In some cases, Fiat Chrysler has left NHTSA completely in the dark about communications that (it) makes to its dealers about a recall.”

Rob Strassburger of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group, said the effectiveness of recalls was reduced by the failure of many car owners to respond to multiple notices informing them that their vehicles need repairs.

Fiat Chrysler has said it will fully co-operate with the NHTSA inquiry and denied putting drivers at risk.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015