| Fiat Grande Punto Safety Issue | ||
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(Thu 05 Oct 06) Fiat is to ask early customers of the Grande Punto to bring their cars in to dealerships so that safety work can be carried out. The starting point to this story is the fact that Euro NCAP gave the Grande Punto a maximum five stars for adult occupant protection after putting it through its rigorous crash testing programme. However, this applied only to left-hand drive cars; right-hand drive versions - including those intended for the UK market - differed in one important respect.
All left-hand drive Grande Puntos have a metal plate in the steering column which was designed to spread the load of a knee impact in serious front-end collisions. Right-hand drive cars built since the beginning of July 2006 have this too, but those built up until the end of June didn't. Fiat plans to ask owners of those earlier cars to have the plate inserted, but it has not yet done so. The issue has been brought to light by Which?, the magazine of the Consumers Assocation. Which? ran the Grande Punto through its own independent crash test programme - as it has done with more than 650 cars in the last 23 years - and found that although the car performed as well as Euro NCAP says it did in all other areas, the lack of the relevant plate has created a safety issue which it says would have led to Euro NCAP giving the Grande Punto only four stars for adult occupant protection. Which? strongly implies that Fiat "agreed to recall and update all affected vehicles" after the Consumers Association contacted both the manufacturer and Euro NCAP. Malcolm Coles, the magazine's online editor, says that "we were particularly disappointed to find this problem on a car that's been so heavily promoted on the strength of its crash safety. "We're very pleased that Fiat has agreed to modify affected UK models, but now it's important that the company contacts owners as soon as possible so they're not driving around in a car that's not as safe as was claimed." Fiat describes the situation slightly differently. The company's UK Director of Public Relations, Peter Newton, told us: "We will shortly be contacting owners of cars built up until the end of June 2006 to have the work carried out. This will be at the customers' convenience, and of course free of charge. We would like to reassure customers that the Grande Punto is safe to drive, and there is no cause whatsoever to be concerned." Fiat also says that this does not constitute a "recall" since it does not involve active safety (the tendency of a car to crash) but is a matter of passive safety (the way a car deals with a crash). In addition, Fiat UK says it was aware of the situation some time ago - which is certainly implied by the fact that the production process was altered three months ago - and that it was in discussion with both Euro NCAP and the Department of Transport on the matter before Which? became involved. 14/07/06 News: Fiat And IKEA Previous: Nissan Winter Offers Next: Renault Revises Clio Campus |
