Friends and foes (continued)

Ford Executive on the Record

"Are you familiar with this group, this Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, this Rosemary Shahan?"

"Yes, she is infamous."

– Ford Motor Corp. Executive Jeffrey Strongin, under deposition in Arizona lemon laundering case, February 5, 1998

 

"From Lemon Grove to the lemon law

"The 'nuisance' who helped win Ohio's lemon-law fight"

"In 1979, when a car dealer gave Rosemary Shahan a hard time about getting her car fixed, he could not have imagined the consequences for the auto industry.

Not only did Shahan picket his dealership for 5 months, but the North Canton native then spent the next 20 years as a consumer advocate – lobbying, cajoling, complaining and generally causing trouble for the auto industry.

She now heads the California-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, which is based in Sacramento. But by phone and fax, she recently played an important role in awakening less-than-alert Ohio legislators and preventing what she saw as a boobytrap in Ohio's lemon law.

Not surprisingly, her reputation depends on who is being asked.

"She is terrifically knowledgeable about the industry. She knows their tricks, and she is properly cynical about what to watch out for, " said Sally Greenberg, a senior product-safety counsel at Consumers Union. 'She has years of experience and a really dogged personality. She is a dedicated consumer advocate.'

The people who make cars are not as enthusiastic. "She is a well-intentioned woman. She believes in what she is doing,' said Loius H. Goldfarb, the associate general counsel for DaimlerChrysler AG. 'She tries to bring benefit to the public. The problem that the industry has had over the years is that she engages in a tremendous amount of hyperbole,' Goldfarb said."

Shahan's issues have included lemon laws, air bags and better seat belts – and over the last 20 years, Shahan has had a significant impact on the auto industry, according to Clarence Ditlow, the director of the Center for Auto Safety in Washington, D.C. 'She has been a thorn for the auto companies and a rose for consumers in terms of improving and safeguarding lemon laws,' Ditlow said."

– Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 30, 1999