New GM Recall Targets Millions of Large CUVs, Midsize Cars

General Motors today recalls an estimated 2.42 million vehicles to fix newly uncovered defects, bringing its number of U.S. safety campaigns issued this year to 29 and a staggering 13.5 million cars, trucks and CUVs.

The newest recall, which includes four campaigns, comes days after the automaker was fined $35 million by the government in a record civil penalty for not recalling quickly enough millions of small cars built in the previous decade with defective ignition switches linked to 13 deaths and 32 crashes.

GM also doubles a charge it planned to take in the second quarter related to earlier recalls to $400 million. The automaker took a $1.3 billion reduction to its first-quarter earnings related to recalls in the January-March period.

About 1.3 million vehicles targeted by the latest safety sweep include the automaker’s popular Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia large CUVs from the ’09-’14 model years, as well as versions of the discontinued Saturn Outlook from ’09-’10.

GM says the front safety lap belt cable on the CUVs can fatigue and wear out over time, and in a crash a separated cable could lead to injury. The automaker has instructed its dealers to stop selling new and used models of those vehicles until the repairs are made. No crashes or injuries related to problem have been reported.

Another 1.07 million vehicles involved in the recall include the ’04-’08 Chevy Malibu outfitted with 4-speed automatic transmissions, and the ’05-’08 Pontiac G6.

According to GM, a shift cable in the transmission could wear out over time, leading to a mismatch between the gear’s actual position and the readout on the shift lever. The automaker knows of 18 crashes and one injury related to the problem, which also affects other cars GM recalled previously.

Additional vehicles swept up in the recall include 1,402 units of the ’15 Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV. GM says an insufficiently heated plastic weld attaching the passenger-side airbag to the dashboard could keep the airbag from fully deploying in a crash.

The automaker notified Cadillac dealers to stop selling those SUVs and alerted the 224 owners that recently have taken delivery of the trucks to not use the front passenger seat until the fix is performed. No crashes or injuries have been reported in the Escalades.

The airbag issue has been remedied at the supplier level, GM adds, and vehicle builds continued at the Escalade assembly plant in Texas while the automaker held back shipments of units produced with the defect until they could be fixed.

The fourth campaign involves 58 models of the ’15 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra heavy-duty large pickups, which will be brought back to repair retention clips attaching the generator fuse block to the vehicle body. The clips could loosen and cause a fire. No crashes or injuries have been reported in the pickups.

GM’s new aggressiveness to call back vehicles for repair comes on the heels of the ignition-switch recall mounted in February, which led to the creation of a new safety unit at the automaker, an internal investigation and a restructuring of its global engineering group.

In addition to the NHTSA fine, GM could be on the hook for an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and a slew of civil lawsuits from families of victims involved in crashes linked to the defective switch.

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