GM Takes More Safety Recall Action, Targets 8.4 Million Vehicles

General Motors issues six new recalls targeting 8.4 million North American-built vehicles built over the past 17 model years, with two of the campaigns again addressing the ignition system and potentially linked to three deaths.

“We undertook what I believe is the most comprehensive safety review in the history of our company because nothing is more important than the safety of our customers,” GM CEO Mary Barra says in a statement announcing the recalls today, just hours after the release of a compensation plan for victims of a separate recall involving a defective ignition switch.

“Our customers deserve more than we delivered in these vehicles. That has hardened my resolve to set a new industry standard for vehicle safety, quality and excellence,” she says.

The latest recall, for vehicles built between the ’97 and ’14 model years, increases the number of safety campaigns conducted this year by the automaker to 54. The campaigns target some 28.8 million North American-built vehicles. Both numbers smash annual recall records.

“We have worked aggressively to identify and address the major outstanding issues that could impact the safety of our customers,” Barra says. “If any other issues come to our attention, we will act appropriately and without hesitation.”

GM also says it will take a charge of $500 million in the second quarter related to the latest recalls, raising the financial cost of this year’s safety campaigns to $3.2 billion.

GM says it is aware of seven crashes involving the newly recalled vehicles and eight injuries, in addition to the three fatalities. The deaths occurred in older-model large sedans being recalled for “inadvertent ignition key rotation,” GM says, adding that no conclusive evidence shows the defect caused the crashes.

The other safety campaigns from today address various electronic and mechanical glitches and call back 220,964 North American-built vehicles.

Earlier today, attorney Kenneth Feinberg released a compensation plan for victims of vehicles involved in crashes where defective ignition switches turned off inadvertently and disabled the car’s airbags. That defect has been linked to 13 deaths and 54 crashes, although with the release  of Feinberg’s plan those numbers are expected to rise.

The financial cost of GM’s poor safety processes also will escalate, as the automaker instructed Feinberg to formulate a plan without a dollar limit.

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