The top lawyers in several states are warning car companies to be careful about the way they’e advertising the popular sport utility vehicles. Bob Brammer, a spokesman for Iowa’s Attorney General says 16 automakers are getting a letter expressing the concern. He says s-u-v’s are not as stable as regular cars and he says there’s a concern that the t-v ads used by car companies are bluring that fact. Brammer says the car companies are trying to create excitement for their vehicles. He says the ads show the vehicles doing rugged high-speed maneuvers that may be possible, but not advisable. Brammer says it’s also been proven that s-u-v’s that’re overloaded also have rollover problems. He says this is an outgrowth of the problem with s-u-v rollover deaths a few years back. He says they learned that some of the problems had to do with faulty Firestone tires, but they also learned that s-u-v’s are three times more likely to roll over than passenger cars. Brammer says the Attorneys General of Iowa and 39 other states hope the letters to the car companies make them change their advertising, otherwise they’ll have to take other action. He says they may have to undertake a consumer fraud case, but it hasn’t gotten to that point yet, and they hope it doesn’t. Brammer says anyone with an s-u-v should be aware of the dangers involved when the vehicles are driven or loaded in certain ways.
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