GM Recalling 120,000 Trucks That Could Explode in Crash
General Motors Corp. is recalling 120,000 new compact pickups that could explode in a side-impact crash. The company blamed short cuts taken by the supplier of a fuel system part for the danger.
Friday’s recall of the fast-selling new Chevrolet S-10 and GMC Sonoma trucks raises the question of whether aggressive price cuts demanded of suppliers are leaving GM stuck with shoddy parts and mediocre workmanship.
GM has said its crusade to save money has cut $4 billion from its $35-billion annual parts budget since the end of 1991, and it expects more savings this year.
“We are confident it (the defect) is not because of pricing, but because of a lack of communication,” GM spokeswoman Linda Cook said. She refused to identify the supplier.
GM learned of the safety defect earlier this month from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, which performed a routine side-impact test on one of the trucks.
The agency said the fuel system survived the impact but leaked more fuel than allowable under the federal standard when it was rolled over.
NHTSA and GM traced the leak to a joint in the fuel system. The problem had not occurred when GM had a prototype of the truck certified earlier.
Cook said the supplier switched the method of making the joint, using silver solder instead of a slower brazing method. Solder withstands less heat than brazing, Cook said. She did not say why the supplier changed its manufacturing method.
“It sounds like a supplier made a miscalculation . . . maybe to save costs,” said Joseph Phillippi, an analyst for Lehman Brothers.
If cost was not the issue, the change in manufacturing process could have come from a team of GM efficiency experts that has visited thousands of suppliers to suggest manufacturing changes that can save time and money.
Upon discovering the problem, GM halted production of the trucks at plants in Shreveport, La., and Linden, N.J., on Wednesday. Production resumed Thursday with parts that use the brazing process.
GM also told dealers to stop delivering the 1994 trucks to customers until repairs, which take less than an hour, could be made.
Owners of the 53,000 trucks already sold are being notified by mail of the recall. The other 67,000 trucks are on dealer lots or on their way to them.
In an unusual step, GM is providing free vehicles for some customers to use while their trucks are being repaired.
The safety of the compact trucks is not related to an ongoing federal investigation into the safety of GM’s pre-1978 full-size pickups. NHTSA is expected to decide soon whether to order a recall of 6 million of those trucks or to rule that there is no defect and close the investigation.
