MORNING-07
his Jeep Grand Cherokee. Regulators say the make and model were under
recall. If you already own a vehicle on notice, you are alerted by mail.
But some used cars for sale may have defects that have not been fixed.>
GAYLE KING: This is what you call a parade. It took more than five decades, but Cleveland finally proved it can throw a championship party. More than a million people flooded the streets of downtown Cleveland for the Cavaliers` NBA victory parade. LeBron James and the Cavs defeated the Golden State Warriors Sunday for the city`s first major pro title in fifty-two years.
LEBRON JAMES: I heard a lot of thank-you-LeBrons today, and you know, thanks for coming home and thanks for keeping your promise. But I really-- you guys really should be thanking all the guys up here, to be honest.
GAYLE KING: LeBron sharing the credit. James reportedly said he has no plans to leave Cleveland despite an option in his contract to do so. They say they called the city of Cleveland, they`re now calling it the city of Believeland.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Oh.
GAYLE KING: Which I think is good. Believeland.
NORAH O`DONNELL: That`s really nice. I`m happy for Cleveland.
GAYLE KING: Me, too.
CHARLIE ROSE: It`s a really wonderful example of the connection between sports and a city.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Yeah.
GAYLE KING: A city.
CHARLIE ROSE: And their own identification--
GAYLE KING: Right.
CHARLIE ROSE: --and pride and their sense of self.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Good for them. Congratulations.
GAYLE KING: Big congratulations.
Welcome back to CBS THIS MORNING. Coming up in this half hour, a record fifty-one million vehicles were recalled in this country last year. So why are some used car dealers still selling vehicles with known safety problems? Anna Werner looks for answers in an investigation you`ll see only on CBS THIS MORNING.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Plus, rescuers pull off a dangerous rescue to save two Americans trapped at the South Pole. This morning, new video from the bottom of the world, and details about the man and woman who needed help.
CHARLIE ROSE: Time to show you some of this morning`s headlines. The Wall Street Journal reports that doctors are being advised not to administer FluMist. A government panel says the nasal spray vaccine failed to protect children from the flu for the last three years. The product is made by a unit of AstraZeneca. The-- the company tells CBS News it is trying to reconcile the government`s data with its own.
NORAH O`DONNELL: That`s a big deal.
CHARLIE ROSE: Oh, boy.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Wow.
GAYLE KING: Very big deal.
NORAH O`DONNELL: I can`t wait until my kids were mad at me that I couldn`t them get the FluMist, so they had to get the shot.
GAYLE KING: Now you can say.
CHARLIE ROSE: Now you can say them here`s why mother`s wise.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Yes.
GAYLE KING: That`s right. Mommy really does know best.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Yeah.
GAYLE KING: USA Today says the number of Americans expected to attend the Rio Olympics has plummeted. One reason is that Zika threat. The original estimate of the number of Americans attending was about two hundred thousand. That`s now dropped to around one hundred thousand. Other reasons cited by Americans to skip the games this time, security concerns and Brazil`s political instability.
NORAH O`DONNELL: The Miami Herald reports on a man accused of being Osama bin Laden`s bodyguard being transferred out of Guantanamo Bay. He was moved to Montenegro yesterday after fourteen years in the U.S. military prison. That leaves seventy-nine detainees at Guantanamo. President Obama is pushing to close the facility before he leaves office in January.
CHARLIE ROSE: The Wall Street-- the Washington Post reports that a severe glitch hit Hillary-- Hillary Clinton`s private e-mail server while she was secretary of state. The problem prompted technicians to temporarily disable security features on government supports. A cyber-attack days afterward forced the shutdown of the server in Mrs. Clinton`s home. She has repeatedly denied there`s any evidence her server was breached.
GAYLE KING: And the Detroit Free Press reports that protections for front- seat passengers in some of the small SUVs might be inadequate. Seven vehicles were crash tested by an insurance industry group. Front-seat passengers may be at a greater risk than the drivers. Only the Hyundai Tucson got a rating of good in the test.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Now a story you will see only on CBS THIS MORNING. We`ve reported on vehicles with dangerous defects. Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin was pinned and killed last weekend by his Jeep Grand Cherokee. Regulators say the make and model were under recall. If you already own a vehicle on notice, you are alerted by mail. But some used cars for sale may have defects that have not been fixed. Anna Werner is here with an undercover investigation. Anna, good morning.
ANNA WERNER (CBS News Correspondent): Good morning, Norah. If you`re looking for a good used car, you undoubtedly want one that`s safe. And that probably doesn`t include buying a car with a safety recall that could injure or kill you. We wanted to know what the experience would be like for you, the consumer. Are dealerships and used car lots selling used cars with dangerous recalls? And if they are, would you know?
(Begin VT)
MAN #1: If you see something you like, let me know we`ll take you for a test drive.
ANNA WERNER: We`re on an undercover shopping trip in New Jersey to see what salespeople will tell us about used cars with unrepaired safety recalls, some of which have seriously injured drivers.
MAN #2: Any recalls, anything pertaining to this vehicle got done.
MAN #3: Any issue, we are responsible.
ANNA WERNER: Take this BMW X5 at Premier Auto Group of New Jersey. The federal website that tracks recalls says it has a defective airbag. But when we asked a salesperson named Naji (ph) about airbag recalls, he told us--
Like how--
NAJI: I don`t think the X5 will have this problem.
ANNA WERNER: At this Penske Acura dealership, we found this 2012 Acura TL with the airbag defect still unrepaired. But salesperson, Nicole (ph), told us--
NICOLE: We`re a corporate complex so we-- we won`t sell anything that gives us a bad reputation.
CHRIS (ph): Clean Carfax, clean condition.
ANNA WERNER: At this Auto Lenders, a salesman named Chris admitted his dealership does sell cars with the airbag defect, but told us not to worry.
CHRIS: There`s only two or three people killed by it but they don`t even know what`s causing it.
ANNA WERNER: But he`s wrong. At least eleven people have died due to those airbags, and regulators did find the cause, a problem with a volatile chemical compound. At dealerships around the country, we found used cars with not only those recalled airbags, but other serious safety defects being sold, everything from brake corrosion to faulty ignitions to roll- away hazards. Clarence Ditlow heads the Center for Auto Safety.
CLARENCE DITLOW: Any outstanding safety recall is serious, it can lead to a crash, a death, or an injury, and you should never buy a used car that has an outstanding safety recall on it.
ANNA WERNER: Problem is, there is no federal law that requires used car dealers to inform you about unrepaired safety recalls on the cars they`re selling, and those defects can prove tragic.
ALEXANDER BRANGMAN: I lost my best friend. I lost my child. And in my mind, it was something that was preventable.
ANNA WERNER: A Takata airbag explosion took the life of Alexander Brangman`s twenty-six-year-old daughter, Jewel. In a minor car accident in 2014, the driver`s side airbag exploded.
ALEXANDER BRANGMAN: It was a fender bender. So she should`ve walked away from it. If you could imagine a hand grenade and a sharp metal of a hand grenade, it hit her carotid artery and she bled out. She lost nine pints of blood. She coded three times.
ANNA WERNER: Her car was a rental. But a used car buyer could face those risks for as long as they own the car.
MAN #4: What can we do for you?
ANNA WERNER: We wanted to know what some of the salespeople we had spoken to undercover had to say about those recalls. At Auto Lenders--
CHRIS: I`m not sure if I`m allowed to talk on camera.
ANNA WERNER: --they referred us to corporate, who told us before selling a car, they ".share the vehicle`s Carfax report, which includes accident and title history, odometer readings and recall information, with all buyers." The other dealers told us they disclose recalls, too, but Ditlow, who watched our undercover video, is skeptical.
CLARENCE DITLOW: What they-- they may have a stack of papers, and somewhere in there it might said, but if you go to the average used car dealer, they`re not going to say, look, this car has an outstanding safety recall on it. You need to get it fixed.
ANNA WERNER: Back at the Acura dealership, we asked Nicole--
Did you know that this car has an open airbag recall?
NICOLE: I did not.
ANNA WERNER: Should that car be out there?
NICOLE: No, it should not if it does.
ANNA WERNER: That dealership later told us it was a mistake, and they had pulled the car from the lot. And remember the dealership with the BMW X5 with the airbag recall--
So my name is Anna Werner, I`m with CBS News.
--the manager there told us he would have checked for any recalls before we bought the car, but that doesn`t stop him from selling it.
Do you feel like they`re safe with that recall?
NAJI: They`re not safe, but I mean, it`s BMW, you have to go to BMW and ask them how they let these cars stay on the road.
(End VT)
ANNA WERNER: All those dealers told us later that had we gone further in the buying process, they would have disclosed those unrepaired safety recalls. Two said they do not sell cars with the airbag recall, they hold them back, but couldn`t explain how they wound up on their lot for sale. A major used car dealership association told us that a new law, in their opinion, won`t solve this problem and that auto manufacturers and the government should take responsibility. And they say that used car dealers are as just-- as much of a victim of the process as customers are. But you can-- if you go out to shop, you can check the VIN numbers for yourself on the government website.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Oh, that`s good to know.
GAYLE KING: So that`s how you check--
(Cross talking)
ANNA WERNER: If you go shopping, you go on to Safercar.gov and you put in the VIN number. The numbers are listed on cars for sale online and whatnot. You go, you put the VIN number--
CHARLIE ROSE: Tell you whether it`s (INDISTINCT) recall.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Yeah. And-- and to your point, we`ve made it actually easier for people who are watching. You can get information on your vehicle, if they have any open recalls, you can go to Cbsthismorning.com for that information. We`ll link all of it up for you.
GAYLE KING: All right. Thank you, Anna. I`m sure Nicole, Chris, and Naji are glad they met you the other day. But you`re giving-- you`re giving very important information.
ANNA WERNER: Yeah.
GAYLE KING: I`m not making light of it. It`s very important for people to know there`s an option that they can do.
ANNA WERNER: And you need to know that those recalls are out there.
GAYLE KING: That`s right. Thank you, Anna.
ANNA WERNER: Mm-Hm.
GAYLE KING: Daring flights from the South Pole take sick Americans to safety. Ahead, how pilots completed the dangerous journey to lifesaving medical care from the bottom of the world. And if you`re heading out the door, okay, you don`t have to leave us behind. You can watch us live through the CBS All Access app. It`s right there on your digital device, because we`re thinking you don`t want to miss the CEO of LinkedIn. He will be here in the studio. Jeff Weiner joins us at the table later on. We`ll be right back.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
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