The Brake Pedal On This Dodge Could ‘Collapse’ While Driving And We Have Questions About The ‘Fix’

It’s uncommon to start off The Morning Dump with recall news as, generally, recall news isn’t that interesting. This one’s a little different. Stellantis has to recall some of its Dodge Hornet and Alfa Romeo Tonale models over brake pedals that could completely stop functioning and the solution looks…simple.

Perhaps it’s because I was rudely cajoled out of my bed at 3:00 am by an errant fire alarm, but I have safety on my mind. Do you know who else has safety on their minds? The nice folks at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They’re now investigating Tesla’s Autopilot system over failures in low-visibility situations.

Thankfully, there was no actual danger at our hotel this morning, it was just another loud warning that resulted in nothing actually happening. This seems to be the theme of this year. A big event happens, we assume it’ll change the world, and then it doesn’t. This clearly extends to the car market as well.

And speaking of fire, Ford is hoping to light one under dealers to get them to use the company’s new distribution hubs by paying them as much as $1,500 every time they order a truck from one of them.

Dodge Hornet/Alfa Romeo Tonale Sold With Brake Pedals Built Like Stale Breadsticks

The Alfa Romeo Tonale is a fine, but pricy small crossover with a PHEV option. I have no beef with the Alfa Romeo Tonale. For some reason, however, the lazily rebadged Dodge Hornet version just seems like a cursed vehicle. When they first went on sale Dodge dealers wanted silly money for them. Those who did fork over money had to deal with too many quality issues. In an attempt to be more competitive and lower inventory, Stellantis dropped prices to an almost attractive level.

Now that Hornets seem to be selling, Stellantis has told dealers to stop selling them until they can resolve an issue. What’s the issue? Some PHEV 2024 Dodge Hornets and some PHEV 2024-2025 Afla Romeo Tonales were built with brake pedals that weren’t strong enough. From NHTSA’s safety report on the vehicle, the issue is “a brake pedal that collapses while driving prevents the driver from being able to activate the service brakes.”

You need brakes! Trust me. I sent the brakes smoking on the Pontiac Aztek last night trying to drive through the canyons.

Here’s NHTSA if you don’t believe me:

The inability to activate the service brakes while driving can cause a vehicle crash without prior warning. In the event of brake pedal failure, the Electronic Park Brake, located on the center console, can be used while driving to slow the vehicle to a controlled stop. Also, the Automatic Emergency Braking system, when active, will intervene when it detects a collision is imminent.

It’s nice that the emergency braking system will still work and the electronic parking brake, which is something I now want to test. What’s the fix for this?

The remedy will be to reinforce the brake pedal arm by adding a bolt and nut.

Given that the recall report specifically says that only brake assemblies built during a specific period are faulty, I’d think you’d just want to swap out the whole brake assembly. Here’s what one on eBay looks like.

I’m curious where, exactly, on the arm this bolt goes as that might explain exactly where the brake pedal is failing.

[Ed Note: The arm shown in the NHTSA repair document looks a bit different than the one above, so it’s a bit hard to understand what exactly this bolt and nut are doing. I do think it’s funny that two different bolts are shown in this document — a countersunk allen screw and just a regular hex head:

Can anyone make out what exactly this bolt and screw are doing? Are they preventing the nylon bracket from separating, which could then release the pedal arm sandwiched in the middle, thus rendering it useless? The document says “Add an additional fastener at the location indicated to reinforce the pedal,” so that seems like an OK guess, but looking at the photo of the countersunk allen screw, and considering the instructions aren’t really calling for much torque on this bolt “Drive the nut until the nylon locking material is fully engaged (Figure 2). Tighten the nut to 1.5 N·m (13 in. lbs.)” I wonder if the bolt is acting as some kind of “stop” (i.e. it’s there to take hits so the plastic doesn’t have to). It’s hard to tell, here. I’ve reached out to Stellantis to learn more. -DT]. 

As far as recalls go this sounds more reasonable than the Jeep Liberty tow hitch solution at least, and it’s maybe a bit less janky-looking than that Tesla “rivet” fix for its accelerator pedal cover. But again, if it’s been tested by engineers, maybe it’s not janky at all. It just has to work.

NHTSA Looking Into Tesla Autopilot

Tesla’s Autopilot, while being a decent cruise control if used properly and an impressive piece of technology overall, is not a real driverless car system and people treating it like one is dangerous. One reason is that the system relies on cameras, and cameras, like humans, have trouble seeing through things like fog, dust, or roads with a lot of glare.

From Reuters:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday said it was opening an investigation into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles with the automaker’s Full Self-Driving software after four reported collisions, including a fatal crash.

The U.S. auto safety regulator said it was opening the preliminary evaluation after four reports of crashes where FSD was engaged during reduced roadway visibility like sun glare, fog, or airborne dust. In one crash “the Tesla vehicle fatally struck a pedestrian. One additional crash in these conditions involved a reported injury,” NHTSA said.

Nothing Ever Happens

There’s a train of thought in the online political space (do not engage, trust me) that “nothing ever happens.” If you don’t follow politics, this might sound insane, but if you pay attention to the polls (do not engage, trust me) with the exception of swapping candidates these seemingly big shifts in the race don’t seem to ever translate into huge polling shifts.

It sort of feels like that with the automotive market. There are stop-sales, hurricanes, and cyberattacks and yet… inventory stays stubbornly flat no matter what happens as Cox Automotive noted this week:

Perhaps most surprising, despite all the blips, things look remarkably “normal” in the recent new-vehicle inventory and sales data. According to an analysis of vAuto Live Market View data, sales volume and days’ supply at the start of October look to be getting back on track with the last year we all recall as “normal,” 2019.

A new-vehicle days’ supply of 81 at the start of October is just one day more than the 80 days we saw back at the beginning of October 2019. Days’ supply continues to run below the average 83 days we saw in the first six months of the year and is up two days from last month. Considering the sales pace has declined 5.7% month over month and automakers continue to add MY25 vehicles to showroom floors, 81 days should warrant a feeling of steadiness.

Nothing ever happens.

Ford Is Giving Dealers $$$ To Order F-150 Lightnings

The Ford F-150 Lightning is selling well, up 86% year-over-year, due in large part to heavy discounting in order to get things out the door. Expect even more of that as Ford tries to get dealers to embrace its Rapid Replenishment Centers (RRCs) around the country by handing out cash for ordering an F-150 Lightning from one.

What gives? I’ll let Automotive News explain:

The incentive program, which runs Oct. 15 to Nov. 15 and is open to all retailers, is meant to “further test the logistics and efficiencies of [Rapid Replenishment Centers] and to increase RRC engagement,” the memo says.

The distribution centers are spread throughout the U.S., allowing dealers to reduce floorplanning costs by stocking fewer EVs and giving customers quicker access to a bigger selection of inventory. Similar to General Motors’ EV fulfillment centers, they were first detailed last year for dealers who were part of Ford’s now-defunct EV certification program, although the automaker continues to test their effectiveness.

This intermediary logistics center is a decent idea. Right now, dealers order cars from the factory/company and finance them (this is called “floorplanning”). In theory, floorplanning lowers risk and saves money, but the longer a vehicle sits the less money you earn for a sale. Being able to move cars in and out more rapidly without having to wait is a benefit for dealers, who can save that money, and for customers who don’t have to wait as long for specific vehicles to get stocked.

What I’m Listening To This Morning

In honor of that freakin’ 3 AM fire alarm for nothing, please enjoy “Danger! High Voltage” by Electric Six featuring a guy who sounds a lot like Jack White.

The Big Question

Does it bother you when your new car is recalled?