Like the hits, the General Motors recalls just keep on comin'. In addition to last night's announcement of a full recall of all 824,000 Cobalts, G5s, Ions and other cars afflicted with the ignition switch problem, GM also announced late Friday they are recalling another 662,000 trucks, SUVs and Cruzes.
Automotive News reports that the recall includes the 2014 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra 1500 pickups, as well as the new 2015 Chevy Tahoe and Suburban and GMC Yukon and Yukon XL. The issue is a transmission line leak that could cause a fire. (No word yet on whether this issue is related to that much-publicized 2015 Yukon test drive fire.)
As for the Cruze, we finally know what that mysterious stop-sale order is all about: it's to replace a right front axle half shaft on cars with the 1.4-liter turbo engine that can fracture and separate without warning during normal driving. If that happens, the vehicle would lose power to the wheels and coast to a stop but maintain steering and braking, GM officials told AN.
There have now been six GM recalls this month, something that equates to 4.8 million vehicles in March alone.
I think there are two ways to look at this situation: a.) Were these cars really that problematic when they left the factory? and b.) At least GM is doing what they said they would and getting them fixed.
CEO Mary Barra said the company would "redouble" safety efforts following the ignition switch recall and review what cars needed to be fixed. To their credit, that seems to be happening here.
If these cars have safety issues, I'm just glad for the sake of their drivers that GM is working to take care of them. All these recalls don't really say much about the quality of their cars, but it's definitely the right thing to do by consumers.