Jeep Recall(2)
Posted by
Christina MedlinOctober 05, 2007 10:34 AMOne Saturday while out shopping, my brakes simply stopped working. Most of the time when a person's brakes fail, the brake pedal will go completely to the floor, with no resistance. However, when my brakes failed to work it was as if something was preventing me from pressing the brake. I stomped on the brake, but nothing happened. The pedal did not move. I immediately pulled the emergency brake - which worked.
I pulled over at the next shopping center, a little shaky and paranoid. Wondering if I was crazy or did my brakes fail to work on a brand new 2006 Jeep Cherokee that was less than a year old. After I calmed down, I proceeded on with my day. I called my local Jeep dealership, scheduled an appointment, and took the Jeep in for review.
The Jeep dealership told me that since the problem could not be duplicated and since their test drive went fine, that there was nothing they could do. The service manager replaced some random part, but was adamant that is was a preventive measure and that as far as he could tell nothing was wrong with my car.
Fast forward three months, Jeep announced on September 14, 2007, a recall of 369,000 vehicles, including 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokees for brake problems.
I immediately called my local Jeep dealership and asked when my car could be reviewed. I was succinctly told by the customer service representative - not a service manager - that Jeep makes recall announcements through the press long before they contact the local dealerships and that I should wait to receive a letter regarding the repair of my vehicle.
As of today, October 3, 2007, I have yet to receive any information from Jeep regarding my recall. If I am in an accident between now and the time the Jeep decides to contact me; Jeep has essentially left themselves open to significant amount of liability. My vehicle falls within the Statute of Repose (in NC you have 6 years to sue a manufacture) and the dealership and corporation are on notice (via my contact with them and their public announcement of having faulty merchandise in the stream of commerce). These 2 essential elements are arguably enough to support a substantial personal injury claim.
Meanwhile checkout the official Jeep website for "Jeep Recall or Customer Satisfaction Notification Information". I tried to input my VIN here to see if Jeep had my car listed as a recall vehicle, but the website gives me an error message each time (go figure).
To be continued....
For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.