Three quarters of a million car owners are kicking gravel morosely down the road in America, as they walk back home without their shiny Volkswagens and Chryslers. Both auto makers recalled hundreds of thousands of vehicles due to problems with tubes and sacs.
Laws require automakers to file paperwork with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration within five days of learning about a safety issue, and as soon as Chrysler realized earlier this month that the air conditioning system in thousands of minivans was improperly assembled in 2008, they made the call.
This blog isn’t entirely clear on the physics of the process, but dribs and drabs of condensation from leaky air conditioning drains in Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans tend to escape and have somehow, occasionally, caused the passenger side airbag to deploy in the face of the occupant without provocation.
Volkswagen’s problem was somewhat more pedestrian – fuel lines, while intact in the original design of their vehicles, could develop holes in the real world as the tube rubbed against other car parts.
Dragging all these cars back to the dealership, while a downer for everyone else, was something of a business boost for our Pennsylvania auto transport company.