With Chrysler’s recent announcement of 500,000 recalled vehicles, it is very possible that there may be a Texas lemon law issue involved here. The recall pertains to 2001 – 2002 Dodge vehicles for the following models: Dakota trucks, Durango sport utility vehicles (SUV), Ram vans, and Ram pickup.
The reason for the recall is due to faulty gearshift blocker and bracket assembly components. With a faulty gearshift blocker or bracket assembly, your vehicle could shift out of park, even your without your key being in the ignition. No, this is nothing similar to the robot autopilot car I wrote about several weeks ago.
So far, there has been 9 known nonfatal injuries related to this product defect.
Unfortunately, Chrysler will not be notifying owners of this vehicle until January 2008. It seems like this is a terribly irresponsible thing to do, especially since it took Chrysler 6 to 7 years to finally announce a defect on its 2001/2002 model vehicles and the fact that nine injuries and incidents had to occur before the Detroit-based company is willing to do anything about the issue. Now, they’re going to wait an additional minimum of 21 days to let owners know about it. What if a Chrysler car owner suffers from this defect from now until January? …and what if this 10th incident becomes fatal?
The problem with invoking these recalled vehicle under Texas Lemon Law is that the deadline/statute of limitation for filing a claim under the Texas Department of Transportation has expired because it has been more than 24 months ago since the consumer’s date of purchase. Most likely, these vehicles have more than 24,000 miles on them. However, an automotive buyer may have recourse under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA).
If you know of anyone who owns one of the above named vehicles, please inform them of the recall as soon as possible. Most owners are unfamiliar with recalls and usually don’t bring their vehicles in to repair the defect.
For more information, go here.