General Motors (GM) has recalled as many as 58,696 vehicles in South Korea due to problems with steering wheels, fuel hoses and seats. The recall includes 4 models: Winstorm SUV and Winstorm Maxx SUV (45,957 units), Lacetti Premiere sedans (12,604 units) and Damas commercial vehicle (135 units). No accidents have resulted from any of the problems so far.
The recalled models are manufactured by GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co., the third largest automaker of South Korea. The company was formed after GM acquired Daewoo Motor Co. Ltd. in 2001. Post acquisition, GM has re-labeled the Daewoo models under its own brands – Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, Holden and Opel. The GM Daewoo nameplate was kept only for models sold in South Korea and Vietnam.
The Winstorm and Winstorm Maxx SUVs are exported as Chevrolet Captiva and Opel Antara, respectively. Meanwhile, Lacetti Premiere sedans are sold as Chevrolet Cruze in the international market. According to Kim Byeong-soo, a spokesperson for GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co., the recalls of exported vehicles will be announced later in accordance with local rules.
At the beginning of this month, GM had announced recalls of 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac compact cars sold in the U.S., Canada and Mexico due to a failure with their power-steering mechanism. The affected models were Chevrolet Cobalt (2005–2010), Pontiac G5 (2007–2010), Pontiac Pursuit (2005 and 2006) sold in Canada and Pontiac G4 (2005 and 2006) sold in Mexico.
The recall, triggered by an investigation on January 27 into 905,000 vehicles of the models found 1,100 complaints related to the cars losing their power steering assist. The complaints included 14 crashes and one injury.
Vehicle recalls have become the talk of the town after Toyota Motors’ (TM) recent announcement of the largest-ever global recall of 8.5 million vehicles for braking and sudden acceleration problems. Toyota’s recall was followed by other automakers including Nissan Motors, with brake pedal pins and fuel-gauge component problems and Honda Motor Co. (HMC), with problems with air bag inflators and braking systems.
GM saw an 11.5% rise in sales to 141,951 vehicles during the last month. The improvement was attributable to higher fleet sales (114%), strong new models and Toyota’s woes. GM’s four existing core brands — Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac — witnessed a 32% rise in sales.
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