Last month, one of the U.S. senators from the Empire State urged the Federal Trade Commission to take action to create more regulations in connection with dealers selling vehicles with open recalls that haven’t yet been repaired.

Then on Wednesday, the Department of Consumer Affairs in New York City launched an investigation of 200 dealerships within the Big Apple to discover whether they are retailing unrepaired, recalled vehicles.

As part of the investigation, DCA commissioner Julie Menin issued subpoenas to 200 dealers, forcing them to provide several materials, including:

— Their policies on selling unrepaired recalled vehicles

— Data to reveal how many such vehicles they have sold in the past year

— Proof of whether the consumer was notified at the time of sale

DCA enforces a New York City law that requires dealers to certify that their vehicles are “roadworthy,” and prohibits dealers from “misleading” consumers as to the safety of their vehicles.

Under city law, Menin indicated that a vehicle with an open recall that is unrepaired is not deemed to be roadworthy.

“More cars have been recalled in 2014 than any other year on record,” said Menin, who was appointed to her post by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on April 24. “We’re not going to wait for tragic statistics to demand that dealers repair these ticking time bombs.

“Dealerships who have sold unrepaired recalled cars must take responsibility and notify their consumers immediately to repair the vehicles,” she continued. “Consumers shouldn’t have to wait for new legislation, a court battle, or a tragedy, to know the car they bought is safe as required by law.”

Along with choosing some stores at random, Menin noted that subpoenas were issued to dealerships that have watched by DCA, including:

— Stores that have received a past violation for selling a vehicle that was not certified as roadworthy

— Dealerships that was inspected or received complaints that contain terms associated with safety defects

Although not specifically about recalled vehicles, the agency indicated complaints contained terms such as tires, brakes, defect, lemon and repair.

“The majority of companies were selected at random based on the percentage of licensees in each borough in order to obtain information that is representative of the industry citywide,” DCA officials said.

“DCA will ensure that any dealer found to have sold a recalled car that was not repaired at time of sale in the past year, notify the costumer and make any repairs that are necessary at the dealers’ expense and stop selling unrepaired recalled used cars in the future,” they went on to say.

The development in the Big Apple comes after Sen. Chuck Schumer pushed the Federal Trade Commission to create another regulatory hurdle for dealers to clear in order to sell used vehicles, using an incident allegedly involving a truck sold by a CarMax store in California as leverage to further the campaign.

The New York Democrat sent a letter late last month to the FTC asking the agency to immediately direct dealers that sell used vehicles to change any policy that may potentially allow the sale of recalled vehicles without first fixing safety defects.

More details about Schumer’s actions are contained in Auto Remarketing’s report available here.