Military Vehicles, April 1997,: Re: [MV] fyi --Suzuki rollover tests faked
Re: [MV] fyi --Suzuki rollover tests faked
Walter Keller (tokarev@earthlink.net)
Wed, 23 Apr 1997 17:28:45 -0400
Chuck_Chriss/QXCOM@qx.com wrote:
>
> Car company claims rollover test was faked
>
> 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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The magazine shortened the distance between cones causing the zuk to
have to turn much harder resulting in rollovers - they were suffering
from low subscription - that story brought them alot of attention and
needed sales. I bought a 1986 Suzuki hardtop drove it for 130,000 miles
with no major repairs (only ones due to my abuse offroad). You will find
that most zuks involved in rollovers were being driven in a reckless
manor.
Walter Keller
P.S. wish I still had it when the VW desiel wont run
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