General Motors Co. on June 6 announced four more recalls for its vehicles, raising the total number of recalls that the company issued this year to 34.
The latest batch of recalls by GM involves 105,688 vehicles located all over the world, increasing the total number of recalled vehicles by the company this year to almost 13.9 million.
The largest of the issued recalls involves 69,552 Chevrolet Silverado and SMC Sierra trucks with model year 2014 - 2015, also Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, and GMC Yukon with model year 2015.
The issue with the vehicles is the base radio, which could malfunction and not sound out a warning when the driver's seat door is opened while the keys are still in the ignition. The base radio can also fail to make a sound when a seat belt in the front is not used. Vehicles involved in the recall will have their radio control modules reprogrammed.
GM said that the defect will prevent the vehicles from meeting federal standards on roll-away protection, theft protection and occupant crash protection. There are no known crashes or injuries that have been caused by this potential issue.
The second recall involves 36,012 Buick Verano and Chevy Cruze, Camaro and Sonic cars with model year 2012. The issue with the vehicles is a potential nondeployment of the air bag of the driver side during a crash, with GM reporting one known incident when an injury was caused by the issue. The company also said that it knows of other crash incidents when the air bag failed to deploy, but it is not known if the incident was related to the issue.
Vehicles involved in this recall will have their steering wheel air bag coil replaced. This will prevent any contact between the air bag's shorting bar and the air bag terminals, which is seen as the cause for the potential malfunction.
The third and fourth recalls are comparatively smaller compared with the first two.
The third recall involves 87 Chevy Spark cars with model year 2013 to 2014 and Buick Encore cars with model year 2013 that were manufactured in South Korea. The vehicles have a similar issue of air bags failing to deploy, but for the air bags of the passenger side instead. Vehicles involved in the recall will have the air bag on the passenger side replaced.
The fourth recall involves 37 Chevy Corvette cars with model year 2014. The issue with the cars is a risk of the front air bags being disabled due to an internal short-circuit in the vehicle's sensing and diagnostic module. Vehicles involved in the recall will have the modules replaced.
GM's most controversial recall this year involves millions of cars with model years between 2003 and 2010. The issue was a defective ignition system that could shut down while driving, causing a malfunction in air bag deployment and a sudden loss in the systems for power steering and power brakes. The problem has caused at least 13 deaths.
