Nissan fined $4.4 million for faulty emissions diagnostic equipment
The California Air Resources Board has decided that $4.4 million is the right amount that Nissan needs to pay for selling vehicles that have compliant tailpipe emissions monitoring equipment installed. CARB says that more than 450,000 vehicles, from 2005-2007 model years, don't turn on the "check engine" light when emissions climb too high. CARB discovered the problems in 2007. The $4.4 million would be distributed this way: $3 million to the California Air Pollution Control Fund, $1.2 million to the Environmental Education Initiative, and $200,000 to the National OBD (On-board Diagnostics) Clearinghouse. The Daily Breeze says that this is a "settlement," implying that CARB and Nissan won't be going to court over this. We'll see if we hear different. CARB chair Mary Nichols said that, "Nissan has been cooperative during this investigation, and we are confident that the design process changes they implemented will prevent future problems."[Source: Canadian Driver, Daily Breeze]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Richard 3:12PM (4/17/2009)
Shouldn't the money go to fixing the diagnostic equipment in the cars? Well if it doesn't, where's my cut of "this" settlement?
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Corey 4:06PM (4/17/2009)
"$4.4 million is the right amount that Nissan needs to pay for selling vehicles that have compliant tailpipe emissions monitoring equipment installed."
Typo in the article?
Anyway... $4.4M? For 450,000 cars? Sounds like Nissan got off quite easy and may have actually saved a bit of money by cheaping out/forgetting/not bothering to install the required equipment.
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