“In December 2005 DaimlerChrysler reached a $95 million settlement with the EPA and Department of Justice over defective emission controls on nearly 1.5 million Jeep and Dodge vehicles. State and Federal investigations raised questions over whether DaimlerChrysler violated the Clean Air Act by failing to disclose the defects. The monetary settlement clears DaimlerChrysler of these charges.”

“The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy listed the Dodge Ram 1500 Pickup and the Dodge Ram SRT10 on their 2005 “Meanest Vehicles” list, a ranking of the twelve most polluting vehicles of the year. The ACEEE ranks vehicles based on tailpipe emissions, fuel consumption, and the emissions of gases that cause global warming.”

“The Union of Concerned Scientists rated DaimlerChrysler last in its ranking of six major automakers on their environmental performances in 2001. The organization said that DaimlerChrysler’s intense focus on truck sales have kept it at the bottom of the list.”

” DaimlerChrysler has been Criticized for its Toxic Emissions or Discharges Practices:

• DaimlerChrysler, along with other major automakers and the United Auto Workers (UAW), opposes a congressional bill to raise the average fuel economy standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2013. The automakers believe that this would harm the SUV, pickup, and minivan industry.
• In late 2003 DaimlerChrysler canceled its plans to build a hybrid SUV.
• DaimlerChrysler announced in 2000 that it would not commercialize its diesel hybrid (ESX3) because it cost $7,500 more to make than their comparable gasoline powered car, a Dodge Intrepid.
• In April 2002, former supervisors at a Chrysler plant in Kokomo, Indiana were fined and sentenced to home detention for ordering the dumping of industrial oil coolant into the city’s sewer system. The supervisors, who plead guilty to violations of the Clean Water Act, directed workers in April 1997 to send thousands of gallons of the coolant through bypass lines into the city sewers.
• In June 2002, DaimlerChrysler AG and General Motors Corp. won a U.S. court ruling yesterday that stalled the California board from enforcing a requirement for zero-emissions vehicles in the state until the automakers’ lawsuit was decided.
• A U.S. District Judge issued an injunction against the state’s Air Resources Board’s requirement, which decreed that starting in 2003, 10% of an automaker’s vehicles sold in the state emit no tailpipe pollutants. Both Chrysler and GM contended that such regulation was a federal matter.
• In January 2003, Chrysler Group President Dieter Zetsche stated that the company wanted to increase its market share in California from 8 percent to 9.0 percent by 2004. Citing the state’s mandate for zero-emission vehicles, Zetsche said he wanted to moderate the standards: “We want to work together with the state of California to find common ground,” Zetsche told journalists at the opening of the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show. (see related Alert item)”

—Source: http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/rs/profile.cfm?id=208