GM Didn't Recall The Hummer Over Fires Until The Feds Threatened Them

[Ivan Leon]

General Motors recalled nearly 200,000 Hummer H3s last week, over fears that they might catch fire.

But it turns out that GM knew that flaming Hummers were a problem for several years before that. And what’s worse, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration exclusively told Jalopnik that GM did not act, until the feds threatened to launch a formal investigation.

Hummer H3 owners had been complaining to NHTSA for years, pleading for some sort of recourse after a problem was noted with the blower motor in the heating and air conditioning system. The connector and the resistor could short out, quickly causing a fire.

The first reported Hummer H3 caught fire in August of 2008, and its owner notified NHTSA just a month later.

In total, there were 73 incidents involving the HVAC blower motor, including reports of burned or melted components, smoke, and fire itself up to and including total loss of the vehicle, by our count.

One person’s car was completely immolated, preventing them from opening the doors of the burned-out hulk.

It’s known by now that despite all of these complaints NHTSA generally ignores them, so it’s up to GM to notify the regulators if it thinks there’s a safety issue.

In fact, as part of a GM settlement with the government, the company is required to meet with NHTSA every single month to notify the Feds if they think there’s a potential safety issue.

But despite the first fire occurring at the latest in 2008, GM still waited until January of this year to notify NHTSA.

And when the automaker did, it tried to downplay it, NHTSA told us.


Read the full article here:

http://jalopnik.com/gm-didnt-recall-the-hummer-over-fires-until-the-feds-th-1717581525

 

[Ivan Leon]

Locutus of Borg: "Resistance is Futile! Your Vehicle WILL be incinerated!"

 

[airborne]

Not the first time GM has known about factory faults that can/do cause death but do nothing until their hand is exposed. Was quite a big class action lawsuit recently with some models and faulty ignitions, cars randomly switching off and then the airbags don't deploy if there's a subsequent accident.

 

[Ivan Leon]

The shadow of old General Motors looms large over the post-bailout company this week, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration begins an investigation into the timing of the recall of some 1.4 million GM cars in the U.S. and Canada, following crashes that killed 13 people.

The recall alone is shaping up to be one of the more significant safety-related controversies GM, or any other automaker, has faced in some time.

But the fact that we now know GM knew about this problem for nearly a decade, before issuing an actual recall, makes it that much worse.


http://jalopnik.com/your-guide-to-the-problem-gm-didnt-fix-until-13-people-1532115319

 

[FiestaST]

Say what?

 

[Rouxenator]

Recalls in the US are when the feds instruct a manufacturer to recall cars. In the UK it is a request from the feds.
Old clip, but it gives you an idea how recalls work. This one is about the Audi TT in UK : https://youtu.be/idewQD8MBsE?t=16m56s (16m56s)