New Silverado, Cruze recalls bring GM’s total to 14 million autos
General Motors announced four more recalls Friday, this time of more than 89,000 vehicles in the U.S. including its popular Chevrolet Silverado and GMC pickup trucks, as well as Chevrolet’s Camaro and Cruze cars.
This latest round brings GM’s total for the year to 34 separate recalls involving almost 14 million vehicles, a record for the automaker.
The largest of the four recalls announced Friday affects 57,512 model year 2014 Chevrolet Silverado LD, 2014 GMC Sierra LD and model year 2015 Silverado HD, Tahoe and Suburban and 2015 GMC Sierra HD and Yukon and Yukon XL models.
In some instances, the radio may not work, preventing audible warnings if the key is in the ignition when the driver’s door is opened. The problem also shuts off the chime that sounds when the front seat belt is not buckled. The defect puts the vehicles out of compliance with federal motor vehicle safety standards.
GM said it was unaware of any crashes or injuries related to this condition. It will ask owners to take the trucks and SUVs to a dealership to have the radio control unit reprogrammed.
The automaker also recalled 31,520 model year 2012 Buick Verano and Chevrolet Camaro, Cruze and Sonic cars for an electrical problem that can illuminate the air bag warning light. In some instances it could prevent an air bag from deploying in a crash.
Dealers will fix the problem by replacing the steering wheel air bag coil. GM said it knows of one crash with an injury in which this might have been a problem.
The company also announced two small recalls amounting to less than 100 vehicles combined. They include 2013-14 Chevrolet Spark and 2013 model year Buick Encores and 33 model year 2014 Chevrolet Corvettes for different air bag issues.
GM has revamped its recall process following the disclosure that it waited a decade to recall about 2.6 million small cars with an ignition switch defect linking to more than 50 crashes and at least 13 deaths.
An internal probe into the delayed recall released by the automaker earlier this week found that a pervading atmosphere of incompetence and neglect led the company to allow the problem to fester for 11 years before anyone acted to correct it.
GM Chief Executive Mary Barra has fired 15 people as a result of the company-commissioned investigation into why the automaker delayed recalling defective cars. Five more GM employees were disciplined.
GM still faces ongoing investigations into the ignition-switch problem by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Department of Justice and Congress.
