Consumers Union (CU) Responds to Isuzu's Law Suit
31 July 1997
Response by Consumers Union (CU) President to Isuzu's Announcement That the Automaker Is Suing Consumers Union
Statement of Rhoda H. Karpatkin, President
Consumers Union (Publisher of Consumer Reports)
YONKERS, N.Y., July 31 -- Consumers Union stands by the
correctness, fairness, and impartiality of our tests.
The issue here is consumer safety. We believe consumer safety would best
be served by the prompt development of a rollover standard by the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It granted our petition for
such a standard on May 14, 1997, and we urge them to move quickly.
Nevertheless, we welcome an opportunity to place our data and reports
before any court or jury, and are confident that our tests and impartiality
will be upheld in that forum.
We haven't seen the legal complaint but we have heard the wild statements
and false accusations at Isuzu's press conference. Isuzu's assertions were
unjustified in every respect. We will prove that fully and unhesitatingly.
Consumers Union Stands by Its Tests;
NHTSA's Own Videos Confirm Trooper's
Tendency to Roll Over
Statement by Dr. R. David Pittle, Vice President and Technical Director
Consumers Union (Publisher of Consumer Reports Magazine)
Response to Isuzu Decision to Sue CU
Over 'Not Acceptable' Rating of Trooper
The Isuzu Motor Corporation is flatly wrong. CU's tests are valid and
unbiased. Our 1996 tests of the Isuzu Trooper were thoroughly reviewed by our
own highly experienced automotive engineers and their validity supported by
automotive experts and other respected auto safety organizations. For
example, the highly respected Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
independently supported our position and found "the CU petition and supporting
documents effectively established that its test is not biased."
Even more strikingly, videos of NHTSA's own tests of the Trooper and its
twin, the Acura SLX, illustrate clearly and dramatically that both vehicles
tipped up severely on a course designed to simulate a driver's avoidance of an
object in the road. Unlike our tests, NHTSA did not run any comparative tests
against similar vehicles. When a government agency charged with safety
experiences the same tip-ups we did, its proper response is to investigate the
serious problems that were demonstrated. For 18 years now, NHTSA has cast a
blind eye to the serious problem of rollover safety. We believe the
government is failing to carry out its responsibilities to protect its
citizens from potential hazards. Worse, in this case, we believe this is a
risk that could be reduced significantly by relatively minor changes in the
vehicles' design.
When we tested the 1995 and 1996 Trooper and 1996 SLX on our emergency-
handling course, they tipped up 62 out of 125 times at speeds of 36 mph and
higher. Not one of the three other sport-utility vehicles we put through the
same tests at the same time -- the Nissan Pathfinder, Toyota 4Runner, and
Chevrolet Tahoe -- tipped up at all. In fact, over the past nine years, only
two of 61 vehicles we have put through our test have been rated "Not
Acceptable" because they tipped up -- the 1988 Suzuki Samurai and the
Trooper/SLX twins.
Isuzu's major claim is that we intentionally oversteered the cars to make
them tip -- something we have never done in our 61 years of testing any
product, nor would ever do -- but fails to mention the amount of steering a
driver needs to make in order to get a vehicle to respond. The engineering
data confirm that the Trooper/SLX require slightly more steer to get through
the same course as the other sport-utility vehicles we tested. Because they
didn't test any other models, the government failed to take that into account
as well. Had they tested the Trooper/SLX with true peer vehicles, they would
have learned that.
CU's testing and integrity are now under an unjustified attack, and we're
prepared to defend them fully. The real issue is consumer safety. Consumers
need vehicles that will perform safely in emergency encounters on the road --
and most vehicles do. For more than 60 years, Consumers Union -- as an
impartial and independent organization beholden only to consumers -- has
tested products fairly and impartially, and reported our results to the public
in that way.
Other Auto Safety Organizations
With Knowledge and Interest
In Rollover Safety
Brian O'Neill
President
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
1005 Glebe Road
Arlington, VA 22201
Tel # 703-247-1500
Fax # 703-247-1678
Steve Oesch
Vice President
Insurance Institute For Highway Safety
1005 Glebe Road
Arlington, VA 22201
Tel # 703-247-1500
Fax # 703-247-1678
Judith Stone
President
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
750 First Street, NE
Suite 901
Washington, DC 20002
Tel # 202-408-1711
Fax # 202-408-1699
Jerry Donaldson
Sr. Research Director
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
750 First Street, NE
Suite 901
Washington, DC 20002
Tel # 202-408-1711
Fax # 202-408-1699
SOURCE Consumers Union