Jeep recall from last June still not begun

Seven months after Chrysler Group promised the government it would recall 1.56 million older Jeeps for what federal officials say is a potential fire hazard, the automaker says it only now is preparing to build the needed repair parts.

Chrysler and the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration both are disinclined to say much about the lag.

Chrysler -- which vigorously insists there's no safety problem in the Jeeps -- says it now "has finalized replacement-part design and is initiating the tooling process to deliver the required volume." In a December letter to owners of the Jeeps, the car company had warned that the parts "do not exist," but it was trying to come up with them.

In a statement to USA TODAY, the car company said, "Launching a safety recall demands complex engineering and close collaboration with NHTSA well before we accumulate replacement parts. Chrysler Group takes seriously its commitment to customer safety."

The parts involved seemingly are simple -- trailer hitches like those installed as original equipment on the 1993 - 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee and 2002 -2007 Jeep Liberty SUVs.

When it agreed with NHTSA last June to recall the vehicles, Chrysler said that it and the agency agreed that adding trailer hitches to Jeeps that don't have them, or have non-standard hitches, was intended only to " incrementally improve the performance of certain (Jeeps) in certain types of low-speed impacts."

NHTSA declines to say if seven months is too long, or whether it is likely to sue the car company in federal court to force quicker action.

The agency only would say, "NHTSA does not comment on the details of open investigations. Throughout this process, NHTSA has been in close communication with Chrysler." NHTSA says it will publish the results of its analysis, but won't say when that might be.

If the months have been spent designing a super-safe hitch assembly that shields the gas tanks, the time lapse could be overlooked, according to Clarence Ditlo! w, head of the Center for Auto Safety.

If not, he says his advocacy organization is inclined to "fight it."

A super-shield hitch is unlikely, given the reference to incremental improvement in low-speed crashes in the original deal with NHTSA.

Chrysler's comment to USA TODAY that it is working on tooling the hitches is progress of a sort -- especially for owners who suspected the worst when they got the December letter saying no parts were available for the recall.

NHTSA argues, and Chrysler vehemently disagrees, that the Jeeps' rear-mounted fuel tanks make them more vulnerable to leaks and fires in rear-end collisions.

Last June, the agency asked Chrysler to recall 2.7 million Jeeps. In a rare public showdown with regulators, Chrysler refused. The automaker published a "white paper" with statistics showing the Jeeps' involvement in rear-crash fires was insignificantly different than other vehicles with rear-mounted gas tanks.

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne and NHTSA's then-administrator, David Stickland, in a last-minute phone call, personally negotiated a deal to recall fewer Jeeps.

As part of that, Chrysler also isn't required to say the vehicles have a safety problem or are faulty, which most recalls require the car maker to do.

At the time the recalled Jeeps were built, the government required vehicle fuel systems to remain intact when hit from behind at 30 mph. The current rule is much tougher: Fuel systems can't leak after a 50-mph rear crash, and the testing for that is done using a device that concentrates the force of the crash more than the test device used during the 30-mph regulation.

The most infamous rear-crash fire recall is the 1970s Ford Pinto. Ditlow says that in that case, the government required Ford to install components that made the cars meet newer, stricter safety regulations than those in effect when the cars were built.