Automakers, Dealers Get Good Deals in D.C.
By Michelle Krebs July 13, 2010Automakers and their dealers have dodged a couple of potentially troublesome regulatory bullets as politicians have backed off from what were expected to be heavy-handed new regulations.
First, the wide-ranging financial-reform bill emerges this week from months of highly-charged political wrangling in a form that is expected to be passed without any provisions for regulation of auto-dealer sales by a newly formed consumer-protection authority.
And what looked like it was shaping up to be one of history's most potentially powerful acts of legislation dealing with automotive safety has been significantly toned down, according to reports from Washington this week.
After the nation's attention was gripped by revelations of the lax and loophole-laden oversight of the industry when Toyota Motor Corp. was determined to have serially ignored safety-related issues with little consequence from federal regulators, Congress promised swift and serious correction.
But a comprehensive new auto-safety bill that would have, among other things, empowered regulators to institute onerous fines on car companies for failing to promptly deal with safety-related recalls has been declawed after intense industry lobbying.
The Los Angeles Times reported the bill also originally sought to mandate event data recorders, or "black boxes" in all vehicles within five years. In the new bill, the recorders, which might produce evidence of component failures or human error, face no deadline for installation.
Although he admitted much of the bill had been altered, California representative Henry Waxman - a central figure in Congressional hearings earlier this year that delved into Toyota's practices and processes for dealing with potential safety recalls - declared the bill "balanced" and worthwhile.
"The legislation will dramatically improve the safety of motor vehicles," Waxman said in a statement. "Through this process we were able to earn broad support from our membership."
The auto industry enjoys a reputation for winning reprieves - or at least significant delays -from instituting what it often has characterized as heavy-handed attempts at safety regulation, but the final bill expected to emerge from Congress does delineate standards that govern the design of pushbutton ignition systems that eliminate traditional keys, the layout of automatic transmission shift gates and calls for the inclusion of an override system to cut engine power in the event both the accelerator and brakes are applied simultaneously.
Most automakers already are well underway with installation of the brake-override technology. Toyota, for example, says all of its models, including those from its Lexus and Scion brands, will be equipped with brake override by the end of this year. - Bill Visnic, Editor
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