ETHICS & ALTIMA AIRBAGS
Nissan Altima is one car that shocks every new car buyer. Consumers look at it and admire its beauty, charm, and luxury while wondering how much it would take to bring this beauty into their garage. The price in most cases absolutely shocks the consumer and they wonder why they get so much for so cheap, for the base model it is just above $17,400 including destination for a 2004 model (Brown's Nissan, Fairfax). It is a miracle that Nissan has bluntly pulled off and is not afraid of showing it. But the Nissan Altima was not always such a beauty, earlier models actually faced great controversy for their defective airbags in the release years of 1994 to early 1995. This controversy was actually all over popular car television shows last year where safety experts noted that even in crashes where speeds range from 5-20 miles per hour (mph), the Altima would inflate airbags at full force and often hit the passenger and cause injury. This full force is not like 50 mph, it is actually 160 mph speed which has been enough to cause more than seventy-five injuries because of the airbag deploying straight into the face (NHTSA, 2001). Over thirty of the cases involved severe eye injuries d
Nissan just ignored the problem since in 1996 NHTSA tested the Altima and the airbags performed a lot better. "Blindness, like burn injury, is so unique and horrific that if they were any models with similarly defective airbags causing blindness, other lawyers would sue those manufacturers too (TCAS, 2001). This whole controversy had been going nowhere until The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration stepped in and made it mandatory for Nissan Motor Company to submit copies of car crash reports for cases pertaining to the 1994 and early 1995 models (TCAS, 2001). Most of the passengers injured reported that they were wearing seat belts and could not understand what had happened (NHTSA, 2001). Nissan Motor Company knew their argument was sinking but still replied by stating, "One cannot rely on analysis of crash data bases to determine whether there has been an eye or a face injury due to a deploying airbag. And since the early 1995 models there have been absolutely no serious eye injuries reported (Consumer Guide, 2003). Many people would most likely agree that Nissan Motor Company did not behave ethically in response to the injuries the Nissan Altima had caused. " Nissan bluntly ignores the requests of The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration of sending the crash tests and actually secretly started to improve the airbag system for the following years (Gillis 262). Although in past services Nissan had firmly stated there was absolutely no problem, along with that statement they placed the new and improved airbags in the newer models of Altimas. Well the reports show that there are still about two hundred thousand 1994 to early 1995 Nissan Altimas on the road, and this is just in America (Consumer Guide 2002). It is obvious that Nissan did not choose to have ethical business behavior. But after almost ten years worth of arguing the 1994 to early 1995 Altimas were finally recalled in near June of 2003. Nissan did a good job to improve the airbags but refused to reimburse the victims or even take part of the blame.
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