Your privately imported Cadillac and Chevrolet could be involved in this recall.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in America has just issued a notice to General Motors (GM) to recall about 7 million of their pickup trucks and SUVs worldwide to replace potentially dangerous Takata air bag inflators.
This recall includes some Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Suburban, Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Sierra and GMC Yukon vehicles built over an eight-year period.
In the past few years we have seen a number of General Motors vehicles on Malaysian roads which were brought in by Approved Permit (AP) holders and sold at a healthy profit with no after sales and warranty provided.
For the owners of these GM vehicles, how will they get their faulty Takata airbags replaced as there is no official GM office and distributor here in Malaysia. The AP holder will not be replacing your faulty airbag and you could be driving around in a defective vehicle that could injure your life and the the life of your passengers.
Please check your vehicle VIN number at the NHTSA website to find out if your vehicle is affected by this recall.
This announcement came Monday this week after the U.S. government told the automaker it had to recall 6 million of the vehicles domestically. GM has 30 days to contact owners and provide a replacement airbag plan. This will probably not happen for Malaysian owners.
General Motors says it will not fight the decision, even though it believes the vehicles are safe. It will cost the company an estimated USD1.2 billion, about one-third of its net income so far this year.
The automaker had petitioned the agency four times since 2016 to avoid recalls, contending the air bag inflator canisters have been safe on the road and in testing. But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday denied the petitions, saying the inflators still run the risk of exploding. General Motors owners complained to the NHTSA that the company was placing profits over safety.
Exploding Takata inflators caused the largest series of auto recalls in U.S. history, with at least 63 million inflators recalled. The U.S. government says that as of September, more than 11.1 million had not been fixed. About 100 million inflators have been recalled worldwide.
Takata used volatile ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion to fill air bags in a crash. But the chemical can deteriorate when exposed to heat and humidity, and it can explode with too much pressure, blowing apart a metal canister and spewing shrapnel.
Twenty-seven people have been killed worldwide by the exploding inflators, including 18 in the U.S.
Monday’s decision by NHTSA is a major step in drawing the Takata saga to a close. It means that all Takata ammonium nitrate inflators in the U.S. will be recalled, NHTSA said. Earlier this year the agency decided against a recall of inflators with a moisture-absorbing chemical called a dessicant. NHTSA said it would monitor those inflators and take action if problems arise.
