GM(General Motors) in a new recall development on Monday has affected 1.3 million cars due to power steering issues. This touches mainly the U.S. What happens to the rest of the world is an issue for another day unfortunately. The recall comes one day before CEO Mary Barra will testify before Congress about how the company handled a different recall of 2.2 million vehicles in the U.S. for an ignition switch problem which has been tied to 13 deaths. Affected families have expressed total displeasure in the negligence of GM as a company.
Recalls affected cars over 9 years old as far back 2004. This raises red flags as to whether GM’s deteriorating financial condition was behind its failure to act. While the company was still four years away from bankruptcy, it was already losing money and its debt had been downgraded to junk bond status.
The loss of power steering issue affects some 2004 – 2010 Chevrolet Malibu, Malibu Maxx, Saturn Aura, and Pontiac G6 models.
GM said that some of these cars had been recalled before for the same issue. But Jeff Boyer, GM’s newly appointed vice president of global vehicle safety, said they were asking drivers to bring them in again because, “we did not do enough.”
In the case of the power steering loss, the car will revert to manual steering. Although steering can be maintained, it requires greater driver effort a low speeds and could increase the risk of a crash, the company said.
GM has promoted a long-time employee to a new position as head of safety. And it seems to be rushing to order other recalls at the first signs of problems. There have been 4.4 million vehicles recalled this year for problems other than the ignition problem.
But the company has not yet explained how it will prevent its internal review process from going awry again.
Repairs for vehicles included in both the power steering and ignition switch recalls may require separate dealership visits, depending on parts availability.
GM now expects to take a charge of about $750 million this quarter, primarily due to recall-related costs.
