Forest River has agreed to pay a $35,000,000 fine for failing to report safety defects to NTHSA in a timely fashion, an action that then delayed recalls.

Forest River RV agrees to $35 million settlement with federal regulators over safety, recall reporting - Elkhart Truth

Steve

 

Ouch ! Gotta think that will raise prices some...

 

I'm thinking that Forest River will take hit to their profit margin. Sounds like they were thinking of money rather than their customer base.

 

And for those of you who wonder what the heck "finded" means, the title of the thread should read "fined". Where the heck was my proof reader? Oops!

Steve

 

delted comment

 

Click "Edit" and then click "Go Advanced" and you can edit the title.

Stewart

 

Well, in reading the article, they only have to pay 5 million and clean up their act. If they are caught with their pants down again by an independent auditor, they have to pay more and more of the deferred portion. The amount goes up with each infraction. 3 mil for the first infraction, 7 for the second, and 20 for the third.

I wonder if this is an issue with all of their brands? Forest River brands operate very differently from each other almost like independent companies. Heartland on the other hand has a lot of commonality between it's lines. Very different ethos.

 

Yeah, $5,000,000 is immediate, the rest is deferred, if they comply. Sort of like they were fined $35,000,000, but only have to pay $5,000,000, so they agreed to a fine they may not have to pay. I read several iterations of this and the specifics are spelled out regarding models somewhere, if not in this article.

Steve

 

Thanks, I fixed it. Didn't know how to do that so I thought once I hit the key, I was stuck.

 

Since Forest River is a subsidiary of Berkshire- Hathaway (Warren Buffet) my guess is that it wont hurt the overall bottom line by much and maybe some of the reason that $30MM was deferred if they do comply

But, this is a good lesson for the RV industry that there really is someone looking over their shoulders. Now, if they would address excessive ST tire failures and the problems there.

 

Actually, shouldn't this message go into the "OTHER" forum? It's not JUST for Bumper Pulls.

 

I moved it to where I think more people will see it.