Copyright ? 1997 The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (April 23, 1997 10:25 a.m. EDT) -- American Suzuki Motor Corp.
says it has evidence that Consumers Reports magazine faked a 1988
rollover test that killed sales of the Samurai and cost the company
hundreds of millions of dollars.
James Fitzpatrick, an attorney for the magazine, dismissed the Suzuki
assertions aired Tuesday at a news conference as "having no basis in fact."
At the news conference, George Ball, general counsel for American Suzuki,
presented films, documents and the sworn affidavit of a former Consumer
Reports
auto technician as proof that the magazine deliberately tipped a Samurai
sport-utility model to get dramatic television footage of the vehicle
approaching a
rollover.
Ball said the company obtained the materials last month through its lawsuit
alleging that the Consumers Union, through its magazine, engaged in fraud
and
deception in obtaining and publishing the results of the Samurai rollover
tests.
Suzuki dropped the Samurai from its product line in 1995.
The Suzuki suit seeking unspecified monetary damages from Consumers Union
was filed last April in federal court in California. The court dismissed
allegations
of libel and product disparagement in February, but let stand allegations
of fraud and allowed Suzuki to obtain the material presented at Tuesday's
news
conference.
Ronald L. Denison, who was part of a group testing vehicles for Consumers
Union from 1979 to 1989, was present at the news conference, but declined
comment, citing the ongoing litigation.
However, Suzuki presented a sworn affidavit from Denison in which he said
it "was common knowledge while I worked at Consumers Union that dramatic
test
results were good for magazine sales. It was generally understood that the
testing we did must be interesting enough to generate publicity to help
sell
magazines."
He said a top executive of Consumers Union ordered a vehicle tester "to
find someone who could make the Suzuki Samurai roll over." Denison's
affidavit said
that after several tries a tester "was able to make the Suzuki Samurai tip
up."
Ball said it took 47 tries to get the vehicle to tip up onto two wheels and
presented original notes from the test driver that reported the Samurai
"responds well
and corrects quickly (in turns), leans normally, snaps back in line.
Confidence fairly high, no real problems."
He said driver logs show the test driver gave the Samurai a "5 plus" for
handling, one of the best marks awarded to sport-utility vehicles by
Consumers Union's
testers.
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