GM recalls more cars

GM recalls more cars

Associated Press

DETROIT

General Motors’ efforts to root out lingering safety problems across its wide range of cars and trucks has produced another big recall — and highlights a sudden shift at GM and throughout the industry toward issuing recalls instead of avoiding them.

The nation’s largest automaker announced a total of five recalls covering 2.7 million vehicles Thursday. The biggest involves 2.4 million midsize cars from model-years 2004 to 2012 with brake lights that can fail.

GM acknowledged it knew about the brake-light problem as early as 2008. That year, it issued what’s known as a technical service bulletin, but that only required dealers to offer to fix the problem if the owner became aware of it. Such bulletins typically cover problems an automaker considers minor, and avoid the larger cost of a recall. But a driver’s safety could be jeopardized by unknowingly operating a car with a defective part.

In announcing the recall, GM said the brake-light problem has been tied to 13 accidents and two injuries.

GM launched a top-to-bottom safety review after recalling 2.6 million small cars earlier this year for faulty ignition switches. GM knew about that problem for at least a decade, issuing service bulletins years before it started to recall the cars. The switch problem, which can shut down a car’s engine unexpectedly, has been linked to at least 13 deaths and has prompted multiple investigations, including one by the Justice Department.

Among the recalls announced Thursday:

2.4 million Chevrolet Malibu, Pontiac G6 and Saturn Aura midsize cars from the 2004 through 2012 model- years. The brake-light wires can corrode, causing the lights to fail.

112,000 Chevy Corvettes from 2005 through 2007. The cars can lose low-beam headlights. GM says an electrical housing can expand and bend a wire, causing it to fracture.

140,000 Chevrolet Malibus from the current model- year. The power-assisted brakes can fail. The problem was discovered April 24.