by EMILY SZPAK Staff Writer
GM recently recalled over 1.5 million vehicles for faulty ignition switches in Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Saturn vehicles. The recall has cost the company over $300 million to fix and caused a total of 12 deaths.
The issue within the vehicles is the key ignition switch, which has been having trouble withstanding the weight of the key ring and rod conditions, causing the electricity to be cut from the vehicle and stopping the engine. This causes the airbags to sometimes turn off, thus increasing injury/fatality during a possible crash.
“It’s appalling that vehicles already on the road can be recalled and that is very dangerous. Hopefully no one else gets hurt, and GM takes full responsibility of the recall and deaths surrounding it,” says junior Rahul Patel.
Using the information from each state registration, a notification letter will be sent out to those affected by the recall. GM is working hard to get parts to fix the issue, and will allow customer to make an appointment with the dealership to fix the flaw as soon a possible. They hope to obtain necessary parts by April of this year. The fix will be free for all affected customers.
GM is warning their customers how to protect themselves until the appointment to fix their vehicle. All those with a faulty ignition switch should remove all objects from their key rings to avoid excess weight on the key.
Also, if you are able to remove your key fob, you are advised to do so. If you are a customer that has already received the repair before the recall, GM will do their best to reimburse you.
“How could such a large company make such a large mistake? Innocent victims were killed because of poor manufacturing. You would think that the vehicles would have failed one of the tests it was put through before hitting the market,” says an anonymous source.
It is questionable why GM has waited so long to address the problem. It is very dangerous for cars to be involved in a crash when the airbags will not deploy, and the lawsuits are all beginning to surface.
Luckily, GM is taking full responsibility for their mistakes and is handling the situation as best they can. Regardless of how they handle it, the image this recall depicts is a bad image for the future of GM vehicles. A large recall like this will hurt business and rightfully diminish some of the the company-customer trust.
Hopefully, the professional way GM handled the situation will be noticed by its customers.
Surprisingly, the recall has left the stock unfazed and customers seem not to be worried. The victims, however, were not so lucky, and their tragedies should come at a cost to GM.
What do you think of the recall? Does it affect you or anyone you know?