Service bulletin Dealer Letter

A bulletin is a manufacturer's communication to its dealers, as NHTSA indexes it. The summary is NHTSA's. The document is the manufacturer's: read it at NHTSA. A bulletin is not a recall, and listing a model year does not mean every vehicle of it is concerned.

NHTSA's summary

Deceptive Sales and Marketing Activities FCA US LLC (FCA US) has recently become aware that a small number of our dealers are engaging in deceptive sales and marketing conduct that seeks to take advantage of vehicle safety recall notifications for their own financial advantage. For example, we are in possession of copies of mailers that seek to grab consumers? attention by using misleading headlines such as Important Recall Inspection and Buyback Information or Important Recall Notice. In some cases, the mailers do not relate to recalls or buybacks but instead seek to lure customers into the showroom by inaccurately suggesting that their vehicles are defective in some way and subject to a safety recall. Moreover, federal regulations permit only manufacturers to send safety recall notification to vehicle owners. These mailers further suggest that customer?s vehicle be used as a trade-in for the purchase of a new vehicle, which in some cases is misrepresented as subject to a buyback program. This type of sales, marketing and advertising is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. This type of deception not only interferes with the important purposes of vehicle safety recall notifications but may also constitute violations of state and federal laws against false and misleading advertising. Further, this deception is in direct violation of every FCA US dealer's obligation under its Sales and Service Agreements to advertise only in a manner that will develop customer confidence in the dealer and FCA US products. Your Sales and Service Agreements also expressly prohibit the use of any advertising tending to mislead or deceive the public. We appreciate that most of you abide by the required advertising and marketing standards and do not engage in the type of deception regarding recall notices that we have highlighted in this notice. We cannot, however, allow this type of misleading and deceptive conduct to continue even among the very few that we have discovered.

The document

• NHTSA's copy of the document (PDF)
• If that address does not open, try this one

The document is the manufacturer's. This site does not hold it. NHTSA files a document at one of these two addresses; we have not asked NHTSA which.

Components

Equipment and accessories

Listing a model year does not mean every vehicle of it is concerned: the document says which.

• Bulletins for another vehicle
• Report an error on this page
• Report an error by email