GROWING LIST
The more than 13.6 million vehicles affected by GM recalls this year include various model years of the:
Buick
• Enclave
• Lacrosse
Cadillac
• ELR
• Escalade
• XTS
Chevrolet
• Cobalt
• Corvette
• Cruze
• Express
• HHR
• Malibu
• Silverado
• Suburban
• Traverse
GMC
• Arcadia
• Savana
• Sierra
• Tahoe
• Yukon
Pontiac
• G6
• Solstice
Saturn
• Aura
• Ion
• Outlook
• Sky
To check for your specific vehicle: Go to www.gm.com. Click on “owner assistance,” then the brand, then “warranty & recalls.”
FORBIDDEN WORDS
As part of a settlement that resulted in a $35 million fine, General Motors last week released documents including one from an internal company presentation in 2008 that listed words and phrases employees should not use when discussing recalls. Among them:
Always, annihilate, apocalyptic, asphyxiating, bad, Band-Aid, big time, b cataclysmic, catastrophic, chaotic, condemns, Corvair-like, crippling, critical, dangerous, deathtrap, debilitating, decapitating, defect, defective, detonate, disemboweling, enfeebling, evil, eviscerated, explode, failed, failure, flawed, genocide, ghastly, grenade-like, grisly, gruesome, Hindenburg, hobbling, horrific, impaling, inferno, Kevorkianesque, lacerating, life-threatening, maiming, malicious, mangling, maniacal, mutilating, never, potentially disfiguring, powder keg, problem, rolling sarcophagus, safety, safety related, serious, spontaneous combustion, startling, suffocating, suicidal, terrifying, Titanic, tomblike, unstable and widow-maker.
Los Angeles Times
General Motors’ recalls, already a single-year record for the company, reached 13.6 million Tuesday as it issued notices for another 2.4 million cars and trucks.
In four separate actions, the company recalled:
• 1.3 million Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia crossovers from the 2009-2014 model years and Saturn Outlook crossovers from 2009-2010. GM says the front safety lap belt cables can wear down and separate over time. GM has told dealers they cannot sell new or used models of the vehicles until repairs are made.
• 1.1 million Chevrolet Malibu sedans from the 2004-2008 model years and Pontiac G6 sedans from 2005-2008 because a shift cable could wear out over time. If that happens, the driver may not be able to select a different gear, remove the key from the ignition or place the transmission in park. GM knows of 18 crashes and one injury from the defect.
• 1,402 Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESVs from the 2015 model year because a faulty weld could result in partial deployment of the front passenger air bag in a crash. GM has stopped the sale of the models and alerted 224 current owners not to let occupants sit in the front passenger seat until the vehicle has been repaired. GM knows of no injuries related to the defect.
• 58 Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD pickups from the 2015 model year because retention clips attaching the generator fuse block to the vehicle body can become loose and lead to a potential fire. No crashes or injuries are related to the defect.
The recalls bring the number issued this year by the nation’s top carmaker to 29. None of the defects cited has resulted in fatalities, and they do not involve GM’s earlier recalls for faulty ignition switches. But that issue, which has been linked to at least 13 deaths and recalls of 2.6 million vehicles, is playing into the burgeoning number of recalls as GM redoubles its efforts to address outstanding safety issues.
The company was fined $35 million last week and facing ongoing investigations by Congress and the Justice Department because it neglected for more than a decade to issue recalls for the ignition switch problem. It is hiring 35 new safety investigators and complying with a federal regulations requiring that recalls be issued as soon as decisions are made.
Problems have ranged from failure of windshield wipers to the ignition flaw, which resulted in the shutdown the engine and all power systems, including power steering and brakes, while vehicles were in motion. More recalls are likely. GM spokesman Alan Adler said the company is making progress on reviewing older investigations, “but work is continuing.”
GM’s 13.6 million recalls since early February exceed the total number of cars it sold in the U.S. in the last five years, and far surpass GM’s previous U.S. recall record of 10.75 million vehicles, set in 2004. By comparison, rival Ford has recalled 1.2 million vehicles in the U.S. this year, while Toyota has recalled around 2.6 million, according to federal data.
Industrywide, the latest round of GM recalls puts 2014 on track to set the all-time record for recalls, at nearly 23 million as compared to 30.8 for all of 2004.
The recalls have yet to affect GM’s U.S. sales, which were up 7 percent in April. But Akshay Anand, an industry analyst with Kelley Blue Book, said Tuesday’s order to dealers to stop selling the 2015 Cadillac Escalade and 2014 Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia until they’re repaired could give more buyers pause. The initial recalls covered older models like the discontinued Cobalt; now they are affecting newer models.
Detroit-based GM said it will take a $400 million charge for repairs on all vehicles recalled so far this quarter. That includes the $200 million charge the company announced last week when it issued five recalls covering 2.7 million vehicles. It comes on top of a $1.3 billion charge the automaker took for recalls in the first quarter.
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