Complain about a product or service

NHTSA Grants Airbag Exemption to SUV

Business More Important Than Consumers' Safety?

January 4, 2006

Auto Safety • Study: Vision Checks Cut Fatal Accidents • Is Your Vehicle Child-Proof? • Teen Misjudgment Major Factor in Highway Accidents • New Auto Safety Legislation Aims to Protect Children • Insurance Group: Supersport Motorcycles Deadly • Feds Consider Tougher Auto Safety Ratings • Congress Urged to Protect Children from Vehicle Deaths • Motorcycle Death Rates Rising, Safety Chief Warns • Feds to Require Additional Minivan Door Latch • Survey: Teens Still Driving Dangerously • Feds Propose Recorders to Monitor Truckers' Hours • Feds Propose New Auto Safety Tests • Consumers Choosing Tiny Cars Despite Safety Risks • IIHS: Bigger is Better in Car Safety • NHTSA's Dirty Little Secrets • Feds Find Backup Sensors Ineffective • Simpler Dashboards Might Make Cars Safer • States Struggle to Cut Highway Fatality Rate • Ford Makes Stability Control Standard for 2009 • Feds Require Safety Info on New Car Window Stickers • Motorcycle, Pedestrian Deaths Rising • Safer Cars, Not Safer Drivers, Reducing Highway Deaths • Former Lobbyist in Driver's Seat at NHTSA • Must-Have Safety and Convenience Features for New Car Shopping • More ...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has granted a waiver to Cross Lander USA Inc. to sell a rough and ready Romanian off-road vehicle in the United States without air bags until May 2008.

NHTSA allowed the exemption after the agency concluded that Cross Lander could go out of business without the waiver.

Federal safety regulations require air bags for the driver and front seat passenger in vehicles that weigh less than 5,500 pounds unless the manufacturer can establish it will encounter "substantial economic hardship" because of the rule.

Public Citizen has argued that the vehicles are dangerous without air bags and the watchdog group sharply opposed the exemption.

The Cross Lander 244X is manufactured by financially troubled Romanian automaker Aro S.A. Cross Lander USA, which is based in Miami, reports losing more than $5 million in 2004.

The Cross Lander off road vehicle looks like a 1980s-era Land Rover and the company plans to sell them for roughly $20,000. NHTSA estimates 9,000 of the vehicles could be sold during the period of the exemption and produce enough revenue to allow Cross Lander to equip vehicles with air bags by 2008.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Follow us on Twitter.

Back to the top |