Car Dealers Riled Over Repair-Cost Data
The nation’s auto dealers are balking at a new government regulation that requires them to give customers booklets that rate the impact of repair costs on car insurance rates.
According to the National Highway Transportation Administration, differences in repair costs can cause insurance premiums to vary as much as 5%. The nine-page booklet ranks cars based on how repair costs affect premiums. Cars are grouped according to size and type, such as station wagon, sports car or luxury car.
The government is mailing each dealer a single booklet to be photocopied for distribution to customers. But dealers are unhappy about paying the copying costs, and are planning legal action to try to force the government to foot the estimated $200,000 bill.
For now, dealers can control copying costs by keeping quiet. The law, effective April 23, doesn’t require them to tell customers the booklet is available. Mark Silbergeld, an attorney for Consumers Union, said: “Anyone who wants a booklet will have to ask for it.”
Fun and fatty: “Eat right and add fun to your diet,” reads the label on a package of Ruffles Ranch Flavored Potato Chips from Frito-Lay, a unit of Pepsico. The chips “contain 10 widely recognized nutrients,” the label says, so the snack can be “part of a healthy diet.”
We called the customer service department at Frito-Lay to learn the identity of those nutrients. A phone representative cheerfully explained that the chips contain small amounts of four vitamins and two minerals, a shred of protein and carbohydrates, plus big helpings of fat and sodium.
It turns out that a one-ounce serving--about 15 chips--contains 10% of the sodium and 12% to 16% of the fat an adult should eat in a day.
Tricia Obester of Public Voice, a nutrition advocacy group in Washington, said the label language seems crafted to comply with the government’s recent overhaul of food labeling requirements, which covers terms such as low fat and light but doesn’t extend to nutrition claims. “People see the word nutrient and think it means healthy,” said Obester. “It doesn’t.”
Upgrade gets a poor grade: “Big News,” announced the January issue of AAdvantage, a newsletter for American Airlines frequent fliers. Under a winter bonus program, people staying at Wyndham Hotels while traveling on American would be eligible for a first-class upgrade on a future flight.
San Diego businessman Richard L. Shapiro planned a trip to Los Angeles, with an overnight stay at the San Diego Wyndham, to qualify for the upgrade. But when he received his upgrade certificate, he learned there was a catch: It wasn’t good for international travel.
Shapiro, who had stayed in the $79 room to obtain an upgrade for an upcoming European trip, was angry. “I’ve lost faith in American,” he said.
An American Airlines spokesman said the company spelled out the restrictions in a November newsletter, which Shapiro apparently missed. The company didn’t repeat the restrictions in the later newsletter.
Getting it off the chest: Now you can stop blaming yourself for failing to achieve “three times the results” of regular push-ups with a device called the Chest Maximizer. The Federal Trade Commission this week said the product, sold in the Sharper Image’s 1990 catalogue, doesn’t work as promised.
The FTC made the announcement as it settled false-advertising charges against Sharper Image, a San Francisco retailer specializing in trendy playthings for men. The FTC said Sharper Image made false claims for two other products in the catalogue: a telephone tap detector said to be “FCC approved” and a nutritional supplement said to have “anti-fatigue” powers.
To settle the charges, Sharper Image agreed not to make false statements about these or similar products in the future. Sharper Image wasn’t fined.
In a statement, Sharper Image President Richard Thalheimer said the catalogue copy had only repeated claims made by manufacturers. He said return rates on the items in question were below average.
Hamburger update: Assemblywoman Diane Martinez (D-Rosemead) has introduced a bill to require fast-food restaurants in California to cook all meat to 155 degrees.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this year recommended cooking ground beef to that temperature after a wave of deadly illness, related to undercooked hamburger, broke out in Washington state. California law now does not regulate cooking temperatures.
