Used car dealers didn’t want to fix deadly defects, so they wrote a law to avoid it

The 35-year-old father of two was waiting to make a left turn on a suburban road outside Houston when another car struck the front end of his Honda Accord, triggering its airbags.

For auto dealers, the string of accidents was a warning sign of what was to come: a barrage of lawsuits filed against them for selling recalled used cars without fixing them first.They crafted what’s known as “model legislation” that would allow them to continue selling recalled used cars, so long as they disclosed open recalls to customers somewhere in a stack of sales documents.

Their true intentions, however, are often difficult, if not impossible, for the public to understand.Lawmakers have been touting the bill as a consumer-safety measure. But it was written by the Automotive Trade Association Executives, an industry group in Washington, D.C., that represents more than 100 executives from regional auto dealer associations.

In the face of opposition, Gordon’s bill was eventually amended, and the final version that passed doesn’t address the sale of recalled used cars. “If the dealers can get the bill passed, they will be able to say the only duty they have is to ‘disclose’ that there is a safety recall, which can be hidden in a stack of documents and presented to the consumer only after they have already test-driven several cars, chosen a car, negotiated the price, applied for credit and signed a purchase or lease contract,” Shahan said. “Too late to be effective or meaningful as a form of disclosure.” .

By the end of 2015, the pace of recalls was so frantic that about 18% of cars on U.S. roads had been subject to them, according to an estimate by Carfax, which compiles vehicle history reports. .oembed-frame { width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;border:0;} In California, Bakersfield resident Tammy Gutierrez sued CarMax for selling her a recalled used car. The landmark case was initially dismissed by the court, but an appeals court reinstated it last year, ruling that Gutierrez had a valid claim under state laws.The first bill surfaced in New Jersey in September 2014, when Assembly Deputy Speaker Paul Moriarty introduced a measure that included a $20,000 fine for failing to disclose open recalls to customers.

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