General Motors waited more than two weeks to expand a major recall to include the Saturn Ion and other compact cars, even though its engineers were aware of four fatalities in crashes involving the model, GM said in documents published on Wednesday.In an amended submission to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, GM also said it had identified an issue with the ignition switch, the central failing in the recall of more than 1.6m cars, in 2001 pre-production testing on the Ion.That is three years earlier than the company previously had reported. Before Wednesday GM had said it became aware of the problem in 2004, in the Chevrolet Cobalt.GM says the switch has been connected with at least 34 crashes and is linked to at least 12 deaths. Congress, regulators and GM itself are investigating why it took the company so long to recall the cars.GM issued its first recall of more than 600,000 Chevrolet Cobalts on 7 February of this year. On 25 February it expanded the recall by nearly 750,000 vehicles to include the Ion and several other compact models that shared the faulty ignition switch that could cause the engine to shut down and disable the airbags, sometimes while the car was travelling at high speed.Asked why GM had waited before expanding the recall, a spokesman on Wednesday told Reuters the company had decided to conduct a 'more in-depth analysis' of vehicles listed in previous communications with car dealers. That led to the second round of the recall.A GM document released earlier on Wednesday said that even after the vehicles in its ignition-switch recall are repaired owners should avoid weighing down their key rings with anything more than the key and fob.Also on Wednesday Senator Claire McCaskill said a Senate subcommittee planned to hold a hearing in early April on GM's recall. 'We have to get to the bottom of this,' said McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat. 'We need to find out who dropped the ball and put millions of Americans at risk.'The failure is believed to be caused when weight on the ignition key, road conditions or some other jarring event causes the ignition switch to move out of the 'run' position, turning off the engine and most of the car's electrical components mid-drive, with sometimes catastrophic results.GM said in an earlier filing on Wednesday that it would offer a loan car in some cases to unhappy owners affected by the recall. The company said it was not buying back affected vehicles if owners ask for that but was offering a $500 cash allowance until 30 April to buy a 2013, 2014 or 2015 model-year vehicle.On Tuesday a source said federal prosecutors had opened a probe of GM, examining whether the company was criminally liable for failing to properly disclose problems with some of its vehicles that led to the recall.
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, March 13, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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