Quote:
Originally Posted by Oleg
Once again recall is a result of an economical calculation of expenses. They dont care about lives or personal inconveniences. If the cost of a recall is less than any other trouble absence of the former can cause then the recall will happen. Applying this to Germany, there is no law suits or media campaigns against fuel pump malfunction so BMW keeps it quiet there. In USA there is a media campaign plus a law suit, somewhere on the forum it was posted.
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This likley. Personal Injury Death cases involving product defects get such big verdicts at trial because companies ACTUALLY perform internal math that predicts the cost per death due to the defect versus the cost to recall. BMW did not recall until the news story because the cost per death of BMW owner or other killed due to the defect was not even close to the cost of the full recall. Once BMW knew the story was going to run and they were aware of the content, their corporate counsel and people in charge of figuring the cost per death may have quickly agreed that to do nothing opened them up to substantial verdicts if there was a death, as the jury would hear that BMW was aware of the defect, see evidence that they in fact calculated the cost per death due to the defect (as most companies that recognize a defect in their product that could cause death) and take the cost per death and blow that cost out of the water. For example, if BMW figured the cost per death would be only one or two million dollars, the jury is not going to award that amount, they are going to want to send a message of much more. I could retire off a case like that!!
NOTE: This is my personal opinion and while most companies do this sort of internal cost to recall vs cost per death analysis, I am not stating as fact that BMW did that here, nor would I. I love my 335i, and despite BMW waiting this long, they are doing the responsible thing and going through the recall.