After resisting federal regulators for about three years, General Motors is recalling about 56,000 Saturn Aura sedans from the 2007-8 model years because a transmission shifter cable could break, which would keep the driver from being able to shift the transmission into park.þþThe defect creates a rollaway hazard, according to a report the automaker posted Tuesday on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website. The company said in a news release it was aware of 28 crashes and four injuries related to the defect over the last seven years.þþThe action is the eighth example in about 16 months of General Motors’ recalling vehicles for which it had previously sent a bulletin to dealers telling them how to fix a problem if the owner complained.þþThe safety agency began investigating the problem in May 2011, after receiving complaints from owners about “unintended movement” of their cars. Later that year, regulators said they found “multiple failure modes,” including cases in which the driver is unable to shift gears; the driver thinks the vehicle is in park, only to have it roll away; and the vehicle is in a different gear than the driver thinks it is in: For example, the transmission is in reverse while the driver thinks it is in drive. Consequently, the agency upgraded the investigation to a more serious engineering analysis.þþAlan Adler, a spokesman for General Motors, said the automaker decided to recall the vehicles because the company was still receiving complaints from owners about the problem. Mr. Adler also said that some customers were not aware that G.M. had extended the warranty on that defective part to 10 years, or 120,000 miles. Others had trouble and were beyond the limits of the warranty, he said.þþOne question safety investigators have been pursuing is why General Motors did not include all the 2007-8 Saturn models in a recall in 2012 that included about 426,000 Chevrolet Malibu and Pontiac G6 sedans from the 2008-10 model years and a few 2007-10 Auras. That recall was issued because of a similar problem.þþGeneral Motors argued that the cause of the current cable failure was different. In addition, the automaker said, the driver of a 2006-8 Aura would notice if the shift lever was not working properly and would thus be warned of an emerging problem. There would be no such warning on the 426,000 vehicles that were recalled in 2012, the automaker said.þþSince the beginning of the year, General Motors has recalled more than 4.8 million vehicles, including about 2.6 million for an ignition-key defect that the automaker has linked to at least 13 deaths.þ
Source: NY Times
