General Motors' (GM) recall woes linked to faulty ignition switches continue as the company adds millions of vehicles to the recall list.
On Monday, June 30, the car maker announced that it will begin six new safety recalls in the U.S. that involves around 7.6 million cars with model years from 1997 to 2014.
"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," says Mary Barra, CEO of GM. "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."
GM claims that amongst the latest recalled vehicles, the company is aware of three fatalities, seven crashes and eight injuries. The crashes happened in the older full-sized models and were occurred due to accidental key rotation of the ignition switch. However, there is no convincing evidence to confirm that the crashes occurred due to the defective ignition switch.
"We have worked aggressively to identify and address the major outstanding issues that could impact the safety of our customers," added Barra. "If any other issues come to our attention, we will act appropriately and without hesitation."
GM claims that the company has already altered the relevant processes, which impacts the safety of the cars. GM says that it has already taken pertinent steps or will soon act on the 90 recommendations that were put forward in an independent report to the Board of Directors by former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas.
The car maker announced that the cost of recall will be around $1.2 billion in the current quarter, which includes $700 million already announced by the company for this quarter.
GM announced that till the ignition switch for the recalled vehicles have been repaired, customers should remove all items from the key ring that has the car's key.
The issue linked with the ignition switch in GM cars has led to many investigations, which also includes a federal probe. U.S. authorities are also concerned over the company's delayed response over the defective ignition switch.
GM previously agreed that in 2004 it found an incident related to faulty ignition switch; however, it was not until 2007 that it took the decision to redesign the switch. The company announced the first recall linked to ignition switch only in February this year.
