This past summer Chrysler joined Toyota in the ranks of major car manufacturers providing dangerously defective products to the public. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that Chrysler has recalled more than 500,000of their 2007 to 2010 Chrysler Town and Country, Jeep Cherokee and Dodge Caravans because of brake fluid leakage and sliding door wiring problems that cause car fires. The defects are serious problems that can result in severe injuries and death.

These new Chrysler flaws cause their vehicles to have faulty, flammable brakes and may trap passengers behind defective doors inside burning vehicles. Both are terrifying situations to contemplate yet are not unprecedented in Chrysler's history; their vehicular attempt to dominate the police vehicle market was plagued with similar defects many years ago.

The Daimler-Chrysler Dodge Intrepids provided to Michigan State Police for testing under their exacting simulations of high-speed chases had brakes that repeatedly overheated and caught fire. A park ranger slowly patrolling in Nashville encountered the same problem in the same kind of vehicle when the brake fluid of his Intrepid leaked and ignited when it came in contact with the bolts holding the brake calipers and pads and place, which had also overheated. The Nashville Police Force received 50 Dodge Intrepids for their fleet but their 4 test vehicles all experienced spontaneous fires in the front wheel wells.

Disappointingly, Chrysler responded to these problems evasively, stating that the combustible automobiles had not been provided with an adequate period of break-in, as though that was a reasonable explanation for these dangerous defects. In general, car manufacturers do react quickly to NHTSA accusations of product defects but only to actively engage in resistance to changes in their company's power structure or in media suppression of the public's concerns about their products, not to take greater measures to prevent these problems.

Police departments and other organizations that purchase a large quantity of automobiles have the resources available to them to properly test their purchases for the safety and protection of their employees and the general public, but individual consumers who experience these types of problems must work with their dealership to resolve chronic defects and have no way of preventing serious accidents due to the defects or even knowing about the dangers their car contains.

The best recourse for any individual who has been the victim of an accident or injury caused by a defective automobile is to hire an experienced injury lawyer to help them file a product liability claim against the negligent manufacturers. These personal injury, product defect and/or wrongful death claims to have the power to not only provide the victims with financial compensation and justice but to hold these large and egregiously negligent corporations accountable for their lax standards and nefarious business practices.