Dodge Fire

[Ron From Regina]

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/20...odge050519.html



Woman whose truck burned wins case
Last Updated Thu, 19 May 2005 16:01:54 EDT
CBC News
OTTAWA - A woman from Saskatchewan whose 14-month-old Dodge pickup was destroyed by an electrical fire caused by a manufacturing defect has been vindicated in the Supreme Court of Canada.


 
Defect in daytime running-light module blamed for fire  
In written reasons issued on Thursday, the court said Shawna Prebushewski is entitled to exemplary damages from Chrysler Canada and a Saskatoon dealer, Dodge City Auto, both of which refused her any help after her 1996 Dodge RAM 4x4 burned beyond repair seven years ago while it was parked on the street.

In the original trial, Prebushewski's lawyer called expert testimony to establish that a defect in an automatic daytime running-light system caused the fire.

A Chrysler engineer acknowledged that the company (now called DaimlerChrysler) had known for several years that there were problems with running-light modules in as many as one million vehicles.

The trial judge ruled that Chrysler made a business decision not to warn its customers about the defect or to recall the vehicles and neither Chrysler nor the dealer made any effort to investigate the fire or to compensate Prebushewski.

The judge awarded her general damages of $42,000 ? the purchase price of the truck ? plus exemplary damages of $25,000 on the grounds that the company and the dealer wilfully violated the warranty provisions of the Saskatchewan Consumer Protection Act.

 
Supreme Court of Canada  
An appeal court upheld the general damage ruling but cancelled the exemplary damages and ordered Prebushewski to pay the legal costs of Chrysler and Dodge City in the appeal.

A seven-judge Supreme Court panel heard the case in March and ruled in Prebushewski's favour, but did not issue reasons till now. It restored her trial victory, giving her both general and exemplary damages and cancelling the order to pay costs.

The decision, written by Madam Justice Rosalie Abella, said the Saskatchewan law "is clear and unambiguous: once a wilful ? or deliberate ? violation has been found, the trial judge has a discretion to award exemplary damages."

[Fire It Up]

DCX and their coverups.  

[TBR]

DCX and their coverups.

What about Honda and Toyota and their cover-ups?

[Raghavan]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

[Run Away]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

[Raghavan]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

[Run Away]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

It took her 9 years to get anything out of it though.

[Raghavan]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

It took her 9 years to get anything out of it though.

It's probably worth it.

[BMWDave]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

It took her 9 years to get anything out of it though.

It's probably worth it.

9 years to pay for an attorney would probably amount to more than 42K in damages plus the 25K she got for the truck.

[ifcar]

Possibly true.

And you mixed up your figures BTW, it was $42K for the truck and $25K for miscellaneous.  

[Raghavan]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

It took her 9 years to get anything out of it though.

It's probably worth it.

9 years to pay for an attorney would probably amount to more than 42K in damages plus the 25K she got for the truck.

Maybe, but she unleashed a whole lot of hell on DCX. for me, that'd be worth it.

[BMWDave]

Possibly true.

And you mixed up your figures BTW, it was $42K for the truck and $25K for miscellaneous.

Damn it :D  

[Raghavan]

Possibly true.

And you mixed up your figures BTW, it was $42K for the truck and $25K for miscellaneous.

Damn it :D

 :D  :P  

[TBR]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

I wonder if you will be just as glad when we hear about reports of people going after Honda because their fairly new CR-Vs exploded (over 25 at this point I believe).  

[Raghavan]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

I wonder if you will be just as glad when we hear about reports of people going after Honda because their fairly new CR-Vs exploded (over 25 at this point I believe).

why would i care? i'm more concerned about the safety of people than my loyalty to a brand.

[TBR]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

I wonder if you will be just as glad when we hear about reports of people going after Honda because their fairly new CR-Vs exploded (over 25 at this point I believe).

why would i care? i'm more concerned about the safety of people than my loyalty to a brand.

I just find it interesting that you are getting so pumped up about something that happened 9 years ago to only one person when the same thing has happened to over 25 CR-V owners in the past year and Honda isn't at all willing to take the blame ("technician error" is their excuse).

[Raghavan]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

I wonder if you will be just as glad when we hear about reports of people going after Honda because their fairly new CR-Vs exploded (over 25 at this point I believe).

why would i care? i'm more concerned about the safety of people than my loyalty to a brand.

I just find it interesting that you are getting so pumped up about something that happened 9 years ago to only one person when the same thing has happened to over CR-V owners in the past year and Honda isn't at all willing to take the blame ("technician error" is their excuse).

no, the thing that pumps me up the most is that chrysler engineers knew that 1 million units could potentially combust, yet did nothing about it.

[TBR]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

I wonder if you will be just as glad when we hear about reports of people going after Honda because their fairly new CR-Vs exploded (over 25 at this point I believe).

why would i care? i'm more concerned about the safety of people than my loyalty to a brand.

I just find it interesting that you are getting so pumped up about something that happened 9 years ago to only one person when the same thing has happened to over CR-V owners in the past year and Honda isn't at all willing to take the blame ("technician error" is their excuse).

no, the thing that pumps me up the most is that chrysler engineers knew that 1 million units could potentially combust, yet did nothing about it.

What do you think Honda is doing? Their only solution is to put stickers on the radiator valance.

[Raghavan]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

I wonder if you will be just as glad when we hear about reports of people going after Honda because their fairly new CR-Vs exploded (over 25 at this point I believe).

why would i care? i'm more concerned about the safety of people than my loyalty to a brand.

I just find it interesting that you are getting so pumped up about something that happened 9 years ago to only one person when the same thing has happened to over CR-V owners in the past year and Honda isn't at all willing to take the blame ("technician error" is their excuse).

no, the thing that pumps me up the most is that chrysler engineers knew that 1 million units could potentially combust, yet did nothing about it.

What do you think Honda is doing? Their solution is to put stickers on the radiator valance.

at least they've changed the design and is trying to do something now rather than 9 years down the road.

[TBR]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

I wonder if you will be just as glad when we hear about reports of people going after Honda because their fairly new CR-Vs exploded (over 25 at this point I believe).

why would i care? i'm more concerned about the safety of people than my loyalty to a brand.

I just find it interesting that you are getting so pumped up about something that happened 9 years ago to only one person when the same thing has happened to over CR-V owners in the past year and Honda isn't at all willing to take the blame ("technician error" is their excuse).

no, the thing that pumps me up the most is that chrysler engineers knew that 1 million units could potentially combust, yet did nothing about it.

What do you think Honda is doing? Their solution is to put stickers on the radiator valance.

at least they've changed the design and is trying to do something now rather than 9 years down the road.

But they aren't trying to do anything about the vehicles already on the road, and there is a much higher occurence percentage than there is with the Rams. I don't understand how you can bitch about the way DCX hanlded this situation and not bitch about how Honda handled the CR-V situation.

[SargeMonkey]

Heres a tip glass fuel filter + a big block chevy truck = FIRE! It was reccomended by the dealer too. :angry:  

[Run Away]

I'm on the fence about the CR-V issue. On one hand, it's not really a design flaw where it catches fire due to a failure or a part (bad quality) but on the other, the design of the oil filter lacation makes the likelyhood of spills catching fire quite high.

I do think they should put out a recall and attach a remote oil filter kit. That shouldn't cost too much, and it's easier to change oil (plus there is a slight increase in oil capacity).  

[Raghavan]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

I wonder if you will be just as glad when we hear about reports of people going after Honda because their fairly new CR-Vs exploded (over 25 at this point I believe).

why would i care? i'm more concerned about the safety of people than my loyalty to a brand.

I just find it interesting that you are getting so pumped up about something that happened 9 years ago to only one person when the same thing has happened to over CR-V owners in the past year and Honda isn't at all willing to take the blame ("technician error" is their excuse).

no, the thing that pumps me up the most is that chrysler engineers knew that 1 million units could potentially combust, yet did nothing about it.

What do you think Honda is doing? Their solution is to put stickers on the radiator valance.

at least they've changed the design and is trying to do something now rather than 9 years down the road.

But they aren't trying to do anything about the vehicles already on the road, and there is a much higher occurence percentage than there is with the Rams. I don't understand how you can bitch about the way DCX hanlded this situation and not bitch about how Honda handled the CR-V situation.

Honda didn't know that it would catch fire until after the first one did and they found the design flaw. DCX knew this before going into production, and that's why i'm am bitching about DCX.

[TBR]

wow. why'd they cover up? they're in hot shit now.

'Cause they thought the owners would just shut up and take the loss after trying a few times to get DCX to pay for it.

I wonder if there was no insurance on the truck or something that they went after DC so much?

well, if your car just randomly caught fire, and being 2 years old, you'd prolly go after the manufacturere, wouldn't you?

I wonder if you will be just as glad when we hear about reports of people going after Honda because their fairly new CR-Vs exploded (over 25 at this point I believe).

why would i care? i'm more concerned about the safety of people than my loyalty to a brand.

I just find it interesting that you are getting so pumped up about something that happened 9 years ago to only one person when the same thing has happened to over CR-V owners in the past year and Honda isn't at all willing to take the blame ("technician error" is their excuse).

no, the thing that pumps me up the most is that chrysler engineers knew that 1 million units could potentially combust, yet did nothing about it.

What do you think Honda is doing? Their solution is to put stickers on the radiator valance.

at least they've changed the design and is trying to do something now rather than 9 years down the road.

But they aren't trying to do anything about the vehicles already on the road, and there is a much higher occurence percentage than there is with the Rams. I don't understand how you can bitch about the way DCX hanlded this situation and not bitch about how Honda handled the CR-V situation.

Honda didn't know that it would catch fire until after the first one did and they found the design flaw. DCX knew this before going into production, and that's why i'm am bitching about DCX.

How do you know that Honda didn't know about that the CR-V's lack of an exhaust header shield before the it went into production? I am sure that at least one engineer thought there should have been a shield there since common sense should tell anyone that, no matter how knowledgable they are about this kind of stuff. Besides, the deal with the Ram obviously wasn't that big of a problem. If it was more than 1 vehicle out of a million would have exploded. On the other hand, 25 out of maybe 250,000 (probably less, I never really pay that much attention to sales numbers) CR-Vs have been burnt to the ground.  

[ifcar]

I'm close to certain that well over 250K CR-Vs have been made since the 03 model year, but your point remains, unless there have been other Ram fire complaints.

[TBR]

I'm close to certain that well over 250K CR-Vs have been made since the 03 model year, but your point remains, unless there have been other Ram fire complaints.

The problems were corrected for the '05 model year, correct? That means that the vehicles with the problem were sold for only 2 years which means more than 125,000 CR-Vs would have to be sold both of those for more than 250,000 affected vehicles to be one the road. I really can't imagine that the CR-V sells that well.  

[ifcar]

I'm close to certain that well over 250K CR-Vs have been made since the 03 model year, but your point remains, unless there have been other Ram fire complaints.

The problems were corrected for the '05 model year, correct? That means that the vehicles with the problem were sold for only 2 years which means more than 125,000 CR-Vs would have to be sold both of those for more than 250,000 affected vehicles to be one the road. I really can't imagine that the CR-V sells that well.

I heard nothing about it being corrected for 05, and I believe someone on C/D posted complaints on NHTSA about 05 fires.

[TBR]

I'm close to certain that well over 250K CR-Vs have been made since the 03 model year, but your point remains, unless there have been other Ram fire complaints.

The problems were corrected for the '05 model year, correct? That means that the vehicles with the problem were sold for only 2 years which means more than 125,000 CR-Vs would have to be sold both of those for more than 250,000 affected vehicles to be one the road. I really can't imagine that the CR-V sells that well.

I heard nothing about it being corrected for 05, and I believe someone on C/D posted complaints on NHTSA about 05 fires.

Raghavan said several times that Honda has recognized and fixed the problem and I just assumed he was right, but I definitely trust you more than I trust him regarding this type of stuff.  

[Raghavan]

I'm close to certain that well over 250K CR-Vs have been made since the 03 model year, but your point remains, unless there have been other Ram fire complaints.

The problems were corrected for the '05 model year, correct? That means that the vehicles with the problem were sold for only 2 years which means more than 125,000 CR-Vs would have to be sold both of those for more than 250,000 affected vehicles to be one the road. I really can't imagine that the CR-V sells that well.

I heard nothing about it being corrected for 05, and I believe someone on C/D posted complaints on NHTSA about 05 fires.

Raghavan said several times that Honda has recognized and fixed the problem and I just assumed he was right, but I definitely trust you more than I trust him regarding this type of stuff.

i only said it once, and that's because i read it somewhere, but i'll trust ifcar over this issue.

[TBR]

I'm close to certain that well over 250K CR-Vs have been made since the 03 model year, but your point remains, unless there have been other Ram fire complaints.

The problems were corrected for the '05 model year, correct? That means that the vehicles with the problem were sold for only 2 years which means more than 125,000 CR-Vs would have to be sold both of those for more than 250,000 affected vehicles to be one the road. I really can't imagine that the CR-V sells that well.

I heard nothing about it being corrected for 05, and I believe someone on C/D posted complaints on NHTSA about 05 fires.

Raghavan said several times that Honda has recognized and fixed the problem and I just assumed he was right, but I definitely trust you more than I trust him regarding this type of stuff.

i only said it once, and that's because i read it somewhere, but i'll trust ifcar over this issue.

You might have only said it once, but you implied it multiple times.