CARY, N.C. -

The executive director of the Center for Auto Safety has asked the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to request that the Federal Trade Commission temporarily shelve its proposed consent agreement with General Motors — an agreement that CAS contends would let GM sell certified pre-owned vehicles with outstanding safety recalls.

A spokesperson from the automaker provided this statement: “GM prohibits the certification or delivery of certified pre-owned vehicles if they are subject to a GM recall until they have been repaired.”

CAS executive director Clarence Ditlow said in his letter to Preet Bharara, the aforementioned U.S. Attorney: “The Center for Auto Safety (‘CAS’) calls on your Office to act to preserve the integrity of the Office’s authority under the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (‘DPA’) reached with GM on September 16, 2015, which provides for the Independent Monitor to ‘Review and assess the adequacy of GM’s current procedures for addressing known defects in certified pre-owned vehicles.’

“In a proposed consent agreement with General Motors, the Federal Trade Commission (‘FTC’) would emasculate Section 15(a)(4) of the DPA by allowing vehicles with open recalls to be sold in GM’s certified pre-owned (‘CPO’) program,” Ditlow continues.

He later added: “There is no place in a CPO program for vehicles with open recalls which endangers the life of anyone who buys such a vehicle.”

CAS, Ditlow says is asking Bharara's office to “to promptly step in and request the Commission to put the proposed GM order on hold so that the Independent Monitor’s team has a full opportunity, with a clean slate, to review, assess, and make recommendations regarding GM’s procedures for addressing the known defects of open recalls in certified pre-owned vehicles.

“This is the time to show how the DPA can benefit consumers,” he said.  

This news was first reported by The Detroit News. The full CAS statement and letter can be found here.