1.3 Million BMW 5 and 6 Series Vehicles Recalled

German luxury-car maker BMW AG said on Monday that it is recalling about 1.3 million vehicles world-wide for repair due to potential problems with a battery-cable cover, one of the German luxury car maker’s largest recalls in recent years.

“In some remote cases, the battery cable cover inside the boot [trunk] of these vehicles may be incorrectly mounted,” BMW said. “This can result in the electrical system malfunctioning, the vehicle failing to start and, in some cases, to charring or fire.”

The recall covers all BMW 5 and 6 Series models built between 2003 and 2010. The company said it isn’t aware of any accident or injury that was triggered through the technical fault.

Vehicle owners will be notified in writing. Repairs will take approximately 30 minutes and will be free of charge to the customer. BMW didn’t elaborate on the anticipated costs it will face related to the recall.

A BMW spokesman said the recall is a precautionary safety measure as no accidents have been reported so far. Nine cases of related defects have been reported. BMW has filed a notification to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The recall comes a month after the auto maker agreed with U.S. safety regulators to pay $3 million in civil penalties for failing to report safety defects soon enough.

A review of 16 BMW recalls issued in 2010 found “a number of instances” in which the auto maker didn’t comply with U.S. law, the NHTSA said last month.

BMW denied that it violated federal law, but agreed to make internal changes to its recall decision-making process in order to “ensure timely reporting to consumers and the federal government in the future.”

The U.S. requires auto makers to report defects within five days and promptly issue a recall to correct the problem.

Many global auto makers have reported large-scale recalls in recent months and years, highlighting the potential risks of sharing certain components and technology through a wide range of different vehicles to reap economies of scale.

In 2009 and 2010, Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. was hit by a huge global recall affecting roughly 9 million vehicles world-wide that dented its reputation for producing top-quality cars. NHTSA, however, didn’t find evidence of electronic defects in the Toyota vehicles.

The BMW recall disclosed on Monday is almost equivalent to the annual sales volume of the company’s namesake brand in 2011. The BMW brand achieved a new sales record last year with a 13% rise year-on-year to 1.38 million cars. The BMW 5- and 6-series accounted for 332,501 and 9,396 vehicle sales, respectively.

The recall, however, affects the cars from the previous model generation.

___________________
source: Wall Street Journal Blog (3/26)

Wal-Mart asks judge to reject Texas class-action bias suit

Wal-Mart Stores asked a federal judge in Dallas to reject a proposed class-action lawsuit in which women allege that the world's largest retailer discriminated against Texas female workers over pay and promotions.

The company said the statute of limitations bars the claims. "The time for asserting class allegations on these claims has passed," it said Monday in court papers.

And the case can't be pursued as a class action because the claims made by the plaintiffs have little in common, Wal-Mart said.

"The complaint does not allege any facts that would establish a class-wide policy of discrimination," it said.

Some of the women who sued allege denial of promotion opportunities but not pay differences, the company said. Others allege pay discrimination but not promotion differences, it said.

"Some advanced quickly within Wal-Mart while others apparently never pursued managerial advancement," it said.

The suit was filed in October on behalf of women working in Texas Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores from Dec. 26, 1998, until at least June 2004.

It came in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that barred treatment of gender-bias claims against Wal-Mart as a national class action.

"They claim that this is exactly the same case as the one the Supreme Court looked at, and that's completely wrong," Hal K. Gillespie, an attorney for the women, said about the company's motion. "It's evident this is very different."

"We have a Supreme Court case that supports us, not them," he said.

Certification as a class action would raise the number of plaintiffs from seven to 45,000, according to the women's complaint. Otherwise they would have to sue individually.

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., said in its motion that the plaintiffs are trying to take "a second bite at the certification apple" after the Supreme Court decision.

___________
source:  Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (Korosec, 3/6)