Paying The Piper: FCA Settles Diesel Lawsuit Cases, Recalls Ram And Jeep 3.0L Diesel Trucks


Paying The Piper: FCA Settles Diesel Lawsuit Cases, Recalls Ram And Jeep 3.0L Diesel Trucks

They aren’t saying that they did anything wrong, but FCA is going to pay out to end the diesel emissions cases with federal and state authorities and owners of Ram and Jeep products that were produced with the 3.0L VM diesel engines. The basic numbers lay out like this:

  • Roughly 100,000 2014-16 Ram 1500 EcoDiesels and Jeep Grand Cherokee Diesels are being recalled to have a software flash performed that will eliminate the conditions that would cause the emissions control systems to temporarily shut down.
  • $305 million dollars will be paid to the EPA, Department of Justice, and the California Air Resource Board (CARB)
  • $72.5 million to attorney generals in various states, plus $13.5 million to the California attorney general
  • $19 million to California for emissions mitigation initiatives to compensate for the extra emissions
  • $6 million to Customs and Border Protection
  • An “unlisted amount” to California, once again, to upgrade 200,000 high-efficiency catalytic converters through the aftermarket
  • $280 million to owners of the affected vehicles, which works out to about $2,800 per vehicle

The reason for the lawsuits boils down to a emissions control systems situation where the systems could shut down in cases that had not been approved by regulators. FCA was accused of not reporting the shutdown situations, which is required by law. The fix is a software flash that will close those shutdown avenues. This isn’t a “cheat”, like the Volkswagen situation is, but instead is a mis-step in following the laws. Had FCA reported the situations involved, and had those situations been approved, there wouldn’t be a story to write. But FCA isn’t completely at fault here. VM USA, along with suppliers IAV and Bosch, have taken credit for the mis-steps and the sequence of events that got FCA in hot water in the first place.

Courtesy: Allpar


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3 thoughts on “Paying The Piper: FCA Settles Diesel Lawsuit Cases, Recalls Ram And Jeep 3.0L Diesel Trucks

  1. KCR

    Now you know the auto makers can design these vehicles to be clean. Its just too costly. So they cheat.And get caught. Now were are they saving money?

  2. Dennis

    Not seeing how this wasn’t “cheating”. My understanding, which could be wrong, was the software would run the emissions equipment only during the portions of the drive which would resemble the EPA emissions test. The rest of the time it would be polluting and engine performance wouldn’t be hampered by the emissions equipment.

    The manufacturers aren’t supposed to be polluting beyond what is allowed. These vehicles were programmed to pollute when it wouldn’t be detected.

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