For Immediate Release Contact: Doug Nicoll
Wednesday, July 1, l987 313-956-1909
HIGHLAND PARK, July 1—Chrysler Corporation Chairman Lee Iacocca, saying “a simple apology is not enough,” today announced Chrysler was taking immediate steps to assure continuing public trust in the company and consumer confidence in its products.
“The only law we broke was the law of common sense,” Iacocca told a press conference at the company’s Highland Park headquarters. “We made mistakes that we will never make again. Period.”
Iacocca said charges the company had violated the law and press reports about those charges are causing some customers to question their confidence in the company’s products.
Since October 1986, the company tests vehicles with their odometers connected and places a notice in the vehicles informing dealers and purchasers of the test mileage.
For vehicles tested before October 1986 with their odometers not connected, which can be identified from company records, Chrysler, as a goodwill gesture, is voluntarily extending its warranty coverage to Seven Years or 70,000 Miles. Most of the affected vehicles are already covered by the company’s Five-Year or 50,000-Mile Warranty, the best warranty in the industry at the time the vehicles were built.
In addition, the company is extending warranty coverage on those vehicles to include additional major systems such as brakes, suspension, electrical, steering, and air conditioning. And third, Iacocca said the company will ask owners of the affected vehicles to bring their cars to their dealers for a free inspection under the new warranty. “If we find any product deficiency, we’ll fix it free of charge,” he said.
Iacocca said owners of affected vehicles will be notified by mail. “We are trying to show our good faith to our customers and to reassure them of the quality of their vehicles, so we’re going to back them even better and longer.”
Iacocca said the company also would offer to replace—“no questions asked”—40 vehicles that were damaged in the overnight testing program, even though these vehicles met all the company’s standards for quality and customer satisfaction at the time of shipment. “The owners will get a brand-new car or truck if they want one,” he said.
“We’re going a little overboard maybe,” Iacocca said, “because when people trust you, and you give them reason to question that trust, a simple apology isn’t enough.”
The company will begin mailing letters today to owners of affected vehicles and hopes to complete the mailing by early next week.
The overnight quality test-drive program utilizes a small number of vehicles selected at random at each of Chrysler’s assembly plants, driven by qualified and authorized personnel. If any problems were found, the problems were corrected prior to the vehicle being shipped to the customer. If a common problem was found among the test vehicles, the entire day’s production was inspected and any required corrections were performed prior to the vehicles being shipped to the customer.
Chrysler said the quality test-drive program was one of the contributing factors to Chrysler having the best safety recall record of the domestic auto industry for the past five model years.
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Reprinted by courtesy of Chrysler Corporation.
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