General Motors has issued a recall on an additional 1.5 million vehicles and vowed to pay all repair costs over concerns about defective air bags, brakes and seat belts.
The company announced three new recalls of different vehicles Monday. The recalls stem from an internal safety review ordered by GM's new CEO Mary Barra, who took over the company in January. (Via The New York Times)
GM's three new recalls include about 300,000 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana trucks, which don't give proper head protection in crashes, and 63,900 Cadillac XTS sedans which might have faulty brake booster pumps. The largest recall of 1.18 million vehicles ranges from Buick Enclaves and GMC Acadias to Chevrolet Traverses and Saturn Outlooks, which all have airbag problems.
Monday's announcement comes on the heels of GM's massive recall last month, when the company pulled 1.6 million cars off the road to fix faulty ignition switches. The ignition switch problem, which went undiagnosed for more than 10 years, has been linked to at least 12 deaths and prompted state and federal investigations. (Via The Washington Post, MSNBC)
GM's new CEO Mary Barra issued a mea culpa on the entire fiasco in a video statement Monday.
MARY BARRA: "Something went wrong with our process in this instance, and terrible things happened."
All told, GM expects to pay $300 million dollars to deal with all four recalls. But a Bloomberg anchor says the real damage GM faces is in public relations.
"Consumer trust, that's sort of at the heart of all of this. As someone who might be looking for a new car, I want to know that the car I'm buying is safe. I mean, I don't think I'm asking too much."
But a CNN analyst says as a new CEO, Barra's swift and open response to the crisis could help GM mitigate some of its image problems.
"Having her out there absolutely is going to make a big change. At a time when GM needs its public image to change, she's the right person to have out there."
GM's recalls are just the latest bad news to come out of the auto industry. Over the weekend Honda announced a recall of more than 90,000 Odyssey minivans due to a potential fuel pump malfunction which could cause the cars to catch fire.
