10 of the world’s most popular automakers are getting sued
The defendants include BMW, Ford Motor, Honda, and General Motors.
Ten of the world’s most popular carmakers are being sued by drivers claiming they hid risks of carbon monoxide poisoning in over 5 million vehicles with keyless ignitions.
The plaintiffs are trying to pin 13 deaths on the ignition systems, Reuters reports.
The complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court states carbon monoxide was emitted in each case when drivers left their vehicles running after taking their electronic key fobs with them, expecting the engines to shut off.
Defendants include BMW, Ford Motor, Hyundai, Honda, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Daimler’s Mercedes Benz, Toyota, Nissan, and Volkswagen.
Keyless ignitions, which start vehicles by letting drivers push an on-off button instead of using a key, have been available in the U.S. since 2003. The plaintiffs said the automakers could have prevented the 13 deaths by installing a feature that automatically shuts off unattended engines, pointing out that 27 complaints over keyless ignitions have been filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since 2009.
Story continues after gallery.
IIHS top safety picks for 2015:
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The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages in addition to a class-action status that would require automakers to install automatic shut-off features on all existing and future vehicles with keyless ignitions.
You can read the entire Reuters story here.
2014 was a record-breaking year for auto recalls, with nearly twice as many cars recalled than the previous record of 30.8 million in 2004. High profile cases included the ongoing recall of Takata airbags and faulty General Motors ignition switches.
All the scandals have not gone unnoticed by drivers. According to the 2015 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), car-buyer satisfaction is down for the third straight year, falling 3.7 percent from last year to a 79 out of 100 on ACSI’s scale. The ACSI collected over 4,000 customer surveys from 2015’s second quarter and found the decline in customer satisfaction was largely due to alarm over the high number of recalls.
There’s good reason for consumers’ concern.
The GM recall alone has been linked to as many as 303 deaths from faulty ignition switches that disabled cars’ safety systems.
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