Fiat Chrysler was hit with a record breaking fine for improper safety defect recalls. They must pay $105 million dollars in fines and offer to buy back 500,000 Dodge Ram pick-ups for steering safety defects and an entire generation of Jeeps because of rear impact gas tank ruptures that have killed 70 people.
Anybody who has ever worked on a Jeep knows that the tank is plastic and is right behind the rear bumper, which is only rated to around a 5-10 MPH crash. Seriously, the bumper is made of nothing. They also rot out really fast. One Jeep we had the rear bumper metal fit in a 5 gallon bucket it was so gone.
The recall could cost Fiat Chrysler around 2.5 billion dollars, but since they have around 20 billion in the bank, sorry if I don’t cry for them. They can put back the money from the bailout that they didn’t really need and stop making crappy trucks.