Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| EXTERIOR LIGHTING | |||
| 03/15/2011 | 2200 | ||
| I was driving 50 mph at nite and wanted to dim my brights for oncoming traffic. i pulled back on the stem in order to do so. at that same time i lost my headlights completely. i was scared to death because it was a dark night and all i could see was the headlights of the oncoming car-- but not my orientation to the road. i immediately used the break and eased the car onto the shoulder and stopped. i found the headlight knob turned to the off position. i was confused because i did not believe that i had rotated it myself. this happened on several more occations in the first weeks after purchasing the car. eventually i realized that the turn-on rotator for the headlights is so loose, and free-turning, that the simple motion of activating or deactivating the brights located on the same stem as the headlights can cause it to turn the lights off as an unintended consequence. my husband and daughter experienced the same thing several times each. they felt as paniced as i had been when it happened to them the first time. now we know that if we touch the headlight stem for any reason that we must be prepared to turn the headlight rotator back to the on position immediately. this is definitely a safety hazzard that could be life-threatening. we asked the dealer who sold us the car to please see if it could be fixed. they said nothing could be done. i would not give this car to an inexperienced loved one to drive as they may panic and cause an accident or injury to themselves. | |||
| 10/04/2011 | 12000 | ||
| While driving at night (with a hertz rental car in kauai hawaii) and switching between high beam and low beam and travelling at 40 mph all the headlights turned off. the stalk mounted switch controls both headlight on/off (rotary motion) and high beam-low beam with back and forth stalk motion. after driving for about an hour and successfully using the high-beam low beam selector often, on the next change between high and low beam the the rotary motion of the knob also engaged and turned the headlights off. i have similar controls on my car at home and this has never happened. the rotary motion of the on / off knob requires just a very light twist and the in-out motion needed to change between high and low beam also twisted the off switch. fortunately i was able to bring the car to a halt with the brakes and stay on the road. it was very scary and very frightening to brake from 40 mph in the pitch dark not knowing if the next instant was to bring a crash. my wife was also very shook up. after i stopped i figured out what happened. it was pitch black outside with no street lights. this can kill someone!! the fluted surface of the on/off knob exacerbates the problem and makes it easier for a light brush with a finger tip to turn the knob and headlights off. the vin i copied from the lihue airport hertz receipt for the rental. license number was kaf 431, hawaii .it was a red color car with automatic shift. | |||