GM recalls 700,000 cars, including Camaro, Silverado, Cadillac CTS
General Motors announced six safety recalls Wednesday covering 717,950 recent model year vehicles, including Chevrolet Camaros and Silverados, Cadillac CTS and ATS sports sedans, Buick Regals and LaCrosses and other models.
GM has set a record for recalls this year and the company’s safety czar said this latest round demonstrates its new approach to safety.
“If we identify an issue — large or small — that might affect the safety of our customers, we will act decisively,” said Jeff Boyer, GM’s vice president for global vehicle safety.
GM has recalled about 26 million vehicles in the U.S. this year. The wave of recalls came after GM called back several million smaller cars with a faulty ignition switch linked to at least 50 crashes and 13 deaths.
The automaker knew about the problem for at least a decade before recalling the cars.
That delay has set off investigations of the company’s actions by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Department of Justice and Congress.
GM has set up a compensation fund to pay damages to victims of crashes related to the ignition switch problem, but still faces hundreds of product liablity lawsuits.
Overall, the auto industry has recalled about 40 million cars in the U.S. this year, surpassing its record of 30.8 million set in all of 2004.
In this latest round of GM recalls, the automaker called back 414,333 vehicles, including 2011-12 model year Chevrolet Camaro, 2010-12 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain, 2011-12 Buick Regal and LaCrosse and 2010-12 Cadillac SRX vehicles in the U.S. equipped with power height adjustable driver or front passenger seats.
A bolt that secures the height adjustment system can fall out, allowing the seat to move up and down freely. GM said it was aware of one crash and three injuries but no fatalities related to this issue. Dealers will replace the bolt.
Also Wednesday, GM recalled 124,008 model year 2014 Chevrolet Caprice, 2014 Chevrolet SS, 2014-15 Chevrolet Silverado, 2013-14 Cadillac ATS, 2014 Cadillac CTS, 2014 Cadillac ELR, 2013-14 Buick Encore and 2014-15 GMC Sierra vehicles because on some of the autos there is an incomplete weld on the seat hook bracket assembly.
GM blamed the problem on a faulty laser welding machine. Dealers will inspect the weld on recalled vehicles and if there is a problem will replace the lower seat track. GM said that it believed that less than 1% of the vehicle have the problem and that was unaware of any crashes or injuries as a result of this issue.
In a third recall, GM is bringing back 120,426 model year 2011-13 Buick Regal and 2013 Chevrolet Malibu vehicles equipped with front turn signals that use two bulbs in each signal. The system has an electronic glitch. Dealers will reprogram a control module to fix the condition.
It also will recall 57,242 Chevrolet Impalas from the 2014 model year that are equipped with belt-drive electric power steering. On certain vehicles, customers may experience reduced or no power steering assist at start-up or while driving due to a poor electrical ground connection to an electronic control module. In that instance, steering reverts to the manual steering mode and requires greater driver effort particularly at low speeds.
GM said paint may have seeped behind the nut on the power steering control module ground stud. Dealers will inspect and clean paint from behind the nut, tighten the nut and update the power steering control module software. GM said it knows of one crash but no injuries or fatalities related to this condition.
GM also anounced two small recalls of 2014-15 Chevrolet and 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban and GMC Yukon/Yukon Denali vehicles for minor problems.
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