Late Monday night, GM announced that it will be launching a 1.3 million vehicle recall that will affect many of its slightly older small cars. The issue involved in the recalls stems from a faulty power steering motor that can fail – causing drivers to resort to fully manual steering.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into the faulty power steering motor in January, but GM says that it launched its own investigation in late 2009 and has determined that a voluntary recall was in order, prior to NHTSA making a determination.
GM says that it notified NHTSA about its decision to issue a voluntary recall, and that the recall is not safety related. Jamie Hresko, GM vice president of quality, said, “Recalling these vehicles is the right thing to do for our customers’ peace of mind.”
Although GM has issued the recall prior to any NHTSA mandate, and has labeled it a ‘voluntary quality recall,’ rather than a safety recall, it is worth mentioning that 14 accidents and one injury have been attributed to the failing power steering motor.
The evidence that the fault has caused multiple accidents and one injury is in direct opposition to the assertion that no safety concern exists – but GM clarified that in the event of a failure the vehicle can still be “safely controlled,” but will require more physical effort when under 15 mph. GM also clarified that in the event of a failure a warning chime will sound, along with an indicator light on the dash.
GM has not yet fully developed a final remedy for the problem, but says it is working on finding a solution and it will notify customers once a solution is found. GM has identified the faulty vehicles to be 2005-2010 Chevy Cobalts, 2007-2010 Pontiac G5 models, the 2005-2006 Pontiac Pursuit from the Canadian market and the 2005-2006 Pontiac G4 sold in Mexico.
“After our in-depth investigation, we found that this is a condition that takes time to develop. It tends to occur in older models out of warranty,” said Hresko. Because GM identified the cause of the failure to come with wear and tear, it has said that it will start with older vehicles first and work its way to the less prone newer models.
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