General Motors is to add to its tally of 40 million vehicle recalls for 2014 alone, having announced that 33,000 Cruze sedans may feature faulty air bags from Takata Corp.
Just when it seems like General Motors rally could not be having a worse year, they find a new and innovative way to prove you wrong. Hot on the heels of more vehicle recalls that most automakers would expect to implements in a decade, Chevrolet Cruze sedans are to be recalled by GM after it came to light that over 33,000 of the things could be on the roads right now with faulty airbags,
The automaker made the announcement on Wednesday, explaining that the recall was necessary due to the airbags having been sourced from Takata Corp – a Japanese company that’s so far having as painful a year as GM.
While there’s apparently not risk of the airbag suddenly activating without warning, GM advised that in the affected vehicles, the airbag on the driver’s side may not inflate in an accident. It was also confirmed that models produced in the 2013-2014 model year are those of concern.
However, GM execs were keen to highlight the fact that the latest recall isn’t in any way connected with a spate of prior recalls related to faulty air bags from Takata, which so far have seen more than 10 million vehicles recalled on a global basis. Vehicles from Toyota and Honda have been affected by the airbag faults in quite enormous numbers, with more than 3 million units having been recalled just this week.
General Motors insisted that with the Cruze, the company is “moving quickly to identify the vehicles involved, and other facts, including whether there are any accidents or injuries, all of which will be shared” said Jim Cain on Wednesday.
He also stated that the National Highway Safety Administration would be issued with the office notice for the recall in the days to come.
Just a few weeks ago, tens of thousands of Cruze sedans were recalled by GM for a similar problem relating to air bags from Takata. As with the latest recall, it was a case of airbags potentially not inflating when needed due to electrical faults.
Prior to the announcement of the new recall on Wednesday, GM confirmed that it had instructed dealers across the US to suspend sales of the 2013-2014 Cruze sedan until all necessary investigations and repairs have taken place. The automaker didn’t offer an exact figure in terms of how many of the affected vehicles were actually on the roads as opposed to sitting on the lots of dealers, other than to say there were ‘many’ in the hands of drivers.
Given the Cruze’s status as the best-selling vehicle for GM in the US, it’s the kind of recall that could severely damage the firm’s reputation even further, at a time when it’s essentially the last thing on Earth they could do with.
Since the beginning of the year alone, no less than 20 million GM vehicles have been recalled for a variety of faults – some of which have been blamed for up to 13 deaths.