Iacocca Issues Apology for Odometer Flap

Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee Iacocca today apologized to his company’s customers because they were not told cars were tested while the odometers were disconnected.

Iacocca said owners of 40 Chrysler cars damaged in testing will be given new vehicles and owners of 60,000 tested cars will be given two extra years on their warranties.

Chrysler’s car-making arm and two of its executives were indicted last week in St. Louis on charges that the third-largest U.S. auto maker illegally test drove cars with disconnected odometers and sold them as new for 18 months beginning in July, 1985.

Iacocca said he did not believe Chrysler has broken the law but said the issue will be decided by the courts.

“Our big concern is for our customers,” Iacocca said, calling testing the cars with odometers disconnected “dumb” and selling as new some cars that were damaged “stupid.”

“We don’t run a bump-and-paint shop around here,” Iacocca said.

Iacocca said full-page ads explaining the steps being taken for customers who bought the cars will be run in newspapers on Thursday and in magazines early next week.