According to a post by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, BMW has been fined $40 million for a recall of the late-model Mini Cooper vehicles.
The investigation was conducted by the agency in September regarding BMW's failure in rectifying certain side-impact crash standards which included the 2014-2015 two-door Mini Cooper, Cooper S, and JCW Hardtop models. BMW admitted that they violated the law by not informing NHTSA of a defect within five days, not notifying owners of the defect, filing late with the quarterly Early Warning Report data, and taking too long to file recall-related information with NHTSA.
Under the order, a flat fine of $10 million is imposed on BMW and other $10 million over two years to pay an auditor, train dealers not to sell recalled cards, develop analytics software to detect safety issues, submit monthly recall reports, and show NHTSA that it is following "best practices." And BMW will be levied $20 million if violates the order, as reported by Car and Driver news.
The problem resulted from three 2014 Cooper Hardtop models when the NHTSA crash-tested last year failed certain requirements to protect rear passengers. BMW responded that it had certified the Cooper with the use of the data from the heavier Cooper S, and said the Cooper models would comply at the heavier weight rating. BMW initiated a recall in December 2014, to install additional foam padding in the side panels on certain 2015 models, and it recalled the 2014-2015 Copper in January 2015 to update the vehicle weight-rating labels with higher weight ratings, thereby putting the Mini Cooper into compliance.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration slapped BMW a fine of $40 million when they failed to meet minimum side-impact crash standards.
According to an Autoblog post, BMW Group has said in a separate release this week that it "is committed to further improving its recall processes to better serve its customers," and that the automaker, "respects the role of NHTSA and looks forward to working with them to develop solutions for the future."
