Category Archives: Vehicle Law or News

Toyota Recalls Corolla and Matrix Models as NHTSA Investigates Engine Stalls

Written On August 30, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The AP reports, “Toyota recalled 1.33 million Corolla sedans and Matrix hatchbacks in the US and Canada Thursday because their engines may stall,” noting that this is one of the largest Toyota recalls since its safety crisis began last year. Meanwhile, GM “is recalling 200,000 Pontiac Vibes in North America due to the same problem, GM [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

TxDOT Debuts New Travel Information Line

Written On August 18, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The Texas Department of Transportation has just set up a travel hotline to give drivers real-time information on traffic conditions throughout the state. The phone number is 800-452-9292. The system is based on interactive voice response, in which the caller asks questions, and the automated system responds.
This is an excellent idea, and I look forward to [...]

Posted in Government, Vehicle Law or News

Consumer Groups Ask FTC to Force Rental Companies to Fix Recalled Cars

Written On August 13, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Here’s one more thing for you to worry about on your next vacation or business trip — car rental companies are apparently not bothering to repair vehicles that have been recalled for safety defects. As reported in the ”Wheels” blog of the New York Times:
“Two consumer safety groups are asking the Federal Trade Commission to order Enterprise [...]

Posted in Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

Preliminary NHTSA Report Finds No New Defects in Toyota Electronic Systems

Written On August 12, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The Department of Transportation’s preliminary findings from investigation into the data records of 58 Toyotas involved in unintended acceleration incidents received heavy media coverage, including over two minutes of airtime, total, between segments on all three major networks, as well as articles in major national papers, including one front-page article. The reports focused on the [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

Honda’s Recall Could Signal An Industry-Wide Problem

Written On August 11, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Honda Motor Company has announced a recall of almost 400,000 vehicles that have potential problems with their ignition interlock systems. The recall includes about 200,000 Accords and more than 100,000 Civics from 2003 and about 70,000 Elements from 2003 and 2004. The ignition interlock on any vehicle is supposed to keep the driver from removing the ignition [...]

Posted in Consumer Information, Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

Featured Link – Most Stolen Vehicles List

Written On August 4, 2010 By Bob Kraft

If you own one of the vehicles on this list of most stolen vehicles, you might want to be a little more careful and keep it in the garage at night.

Posted in Featured Link, Vehicle Law or News

A Tougher Car Safety Agency is Needed

Written On August 3, 2010 By Bob Kraft

A tougher National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is what’s been called for in an editorial that ran in the New York Times a few days ago. The editorial is worth reading, and I certainly agree with the newspaper. Here are excerpts:
The United States has done a fairly good job so far of policing the safety of [...]

Posted in Government, Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

Toyota Recalling 400,000 Vehicles to Fix Steering Problems

Written On August 2, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Sadly, Toyota is still struggling with bad publicity. Now there’s a new recall:
Washington Post (7/30, Cha) reports that Toyota announced yesterday the recall of “412,000 Avalons and Lexuses for steering problems, bringing the number of cars recalled around the world since October to nearly 9 million. The 373,000 recalled Avalons, dating from between 2000 and [...]

Posted in Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

Toyota Does an About-Face on Reliability of Black Boxes in Its Vehicles

Written On July 30, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The Los Angeles Times reports that Toyota has often dismissed the data collected by its event data recorders as “unreliable” and collected by “unproven technology. … Now, facing continued claims that its vehicles are defective, Toyota appears to have done an about-face” and “has been citing data from black boxes in Toyota and Lexus vehicles [...]

Posted in Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

Toyota Still Doesn’t Get It

Written On July 27, 2010 By Bob Kraft

That was the headline in a New York Times editorial, referring to the auto maker’s repeated failure to report known safety defects to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Here are excerpts:
The latest omission to be brought to light — and not by the automaker — regards problems with steering wheel relay rods, which transmit [...]

Posted in Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

Featured Link – FocusDriven

Written On July 26, 2010 By Bob Kraft

FocusDriven is a group with a worthy cause — to reduce auto collisions caused by drivers who talk on the phone while driving. Here is a little information about them, from their site:
Who We Are
FocusDriven is an advocacy group for victims of motor vehicle crashes involving drivers using cell phones. We work with those who [...]

Posted in Featured Link, Vehicle Law or News

Federal Grand Jury Subpoenas Toyota Over Potentially Faulty Steering Mechanisms

Written On July 22, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Bloomberg News (7/21, Ohnsman, Fisk) reports that a Federal grand jury in New York is compelling Toyota to “provide documents related to flaws in steering relay rods, the company said in a filing yesterday.” The piece alludes to NHTSA’s ongoing investigation into safety issues at the automaker, but notes that this issue “is separate from [...]

Posted in Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

State Farm Raising Texas Auto Insurance Rates Again

Written On July 19, 2010 By Bob Kraft

State Farm is at it again — raising auto insurance rates in Texas. Of course under our “business friendly” political environment, the state can’t prevent (even if it wanted to) premium increases.
The State Farm increase is relatively small at an average of two percent. But multiply that by the 3,000,000 drivers insured by State Farm, [...]

Posted in Insurance Information, Vehicle Law or News

25% of Vehicles Uninsured in Dallas County

Written On July 19, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The Dallas area continues to have the highest percentage of uninsured drivers of all large urban areas in Texas, according to a new report from the State Department of Insurance. Statewide, more than 21% of vehicles are uninsured. In Dallas County, the figure is 25%, It is a violation of state law to not have [...]

Posted in Insurance Information, Vehicle Law or News

NHTSA Makes No Conclusions Yet in Toyota Acceleration Probe

Written On July 16, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The Detroit Free Press ran an article yesterday about the Toyota runaway acceleration problem and the possibility that some of the incidents may have been driver error. Here are excerpts:
U.S. auto safety regulators have drawn no conclusions about whether drivers are to blame for sudden acceleration complaints in Toyota vehicles, the head of the National [...]

Posted in Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

Driver Error Found in Some Toyota Acceleration Cases

Written On July 15, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The recent Toyota runaway acceleration cases may have a bit in common with the Audi cases from the 1980’s. Back then Audi took a huge public relations hit after a few well-publicized cases that were later determined to be driver error. Now similar reports are surfacing about Toyotas. Here are excerpts from a recent article [...]

Posted in Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

Attorney General Demands Deceptive Insurance Ad Be Pulled

Written On July 13, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The consumer group Texas Watch has been working to have a deceptive television commercial pulled from the air, and has been successful. The misleading commercial was by Travelers Insurance Company. Here is a press release from Texas Watch:
The state attorney general ordered Travelers Cos. Inc. to stop running an advertisement that he called deceptive.
In a [...]

Posted in Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Vehicle Law or News

Complaints Related to Latest Toyota Recall Started in 2007

Written On July 8, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Bloomberg News reports that Toyota received complaints about engine stalls as far back as March, 2007. The problems “sparked recalls this week of more than 100,000 Lexus and Toyota vehicles in Asia.” The first complaints about “defective valve springs” came in March. “The problem occurs when foreign substances enter the material used to make the [...]

Posted in Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

Experts Chosen to Probe Unintended Vehicle Acceleration

Written On June 24, 2010 By Bob Kraft

The Detroit News ran a brief article about a panel of experts appointed to investigate unintended acceleration in vehicles. Here are excerpts:
The National Academy of Sciences said it had chosen a group of engineers, scientists and auto safety experts to examine unwanted acceleration and electronic systems in vehicles throughout the auto industry. The study, conducted at [...]

Posted in Product Liability or Medical Devices, Vehicle Law or News

Two Texas Auto Insurers Face Investigation Over Huge Number of Consumer Complaints

Written On June 17, 2010 By Bob Kraft

Finally, someone seems to have noticed the notoriously bad behavior of two of the worst auto insurance companies in Texas. The Dallas Morning News ran a lengthy story this week detailing the volume and variety of complaints the Texas Department of Insurance has received against Fred Loya and Old American County Mutual insurance companies. The [...]

Posted in Insurance Company or Government Misconduct, Insurance Information, Vehicle Law or News