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GM recalling over 243,000 crossovers over possible seat belt defect

2010 Buick Enclave - Click above for high-res image gallery
The summer of 2010's recall hit parade continues unabated today, with General Motors having just announced that it is asking 243,403 owners of its 2009-2010 Lambda crossovers to bring their three-row haulers in for inspection. The culprit? Second-row seat belts in select Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia, and Saturn Outlook CUVs have "failed to perform properly in a crash."
According to GM, a second-row seat-side trim piece is to blame, as it can impede the upward rotation of the buckle after the seat is folded flat. As a result, if the buckle makes contact with the seat frame, cosmetic damage can occur, potentially requiring additional force to operate the buckle properly. So far, no great shakes, but in the process of applying that additional force, the occupant may push the buckle cover down to the strap, potentially revealing and depressing the red release button. As a result of this, the belt may not latch, or in certain cases, it may actually appear to be latched when, in fact, it isn't.

GM profits threatened by glut of pickups

Automotive News reports that General Motors may slash production or ramp up discounts in order to deal with an oversupply of pickup trucks. GM currently has more than double the standard supply of pickups, and the vehicles are threatening to dampen the automaker's profits for 2013. Typically, automakers try to sustain a 60- to 75-day supply of vehicles, but GM is currently loaded with a 139-day supply, as of last month. At the end of November, the automaker was sitting on 245,853 units.
The manufacturer says that it will adjust production accordingly before laying any incentives on the profitable pickups. Even so, there's some concern that the inventory swell could hurt the roll-out of the next-generation Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. GM actually began slowly stepping back production in August, but it's clear the company will take further action as it heads toward the end of the year and into the next. Analysts predict the automaker could reduce pickup manufacturing by nearly half in the first quarter of 2013.
That still may not be enough to keep GM from laying extra cash on the Silverado and GMC Sierra. While the company's incentive spending was down in November compared to the same month in 2011, both the Ram 1500 and Ford F-150 saw double-digit percentage increases in sales last month while the Silverado and Sierra numbers slid compared to a year prior. Incentive spending could help move more trucks and add some balance to the GM inventory surge.

The Corvette Museum sinkhole has been filled

After swallowing eight of the most prized pieces of the collection from the National Corvette Museum, the massive sinkhole from a year ago is rapidly becoming nothing but a bad memory. Based on the museum's weekly construction update, you can barely see the remnants of the 25-foot deep hole once in the floor. The Corvette Museum's Skydome was not always going to look like this. The original hope was to keep the sinkhole there as a tourist attraction. That plan eventually fell through, though, and instead it was decided five of the less-damaged Corvettes would remain unrestored. Progress has been moving fast to get the repairs done. Even a month ago, the hole was still very visible, and the construction company used remote-controlled Bobcat loaders to fill it in. Now, the museum has launched a contest to guess how many tons of stone it took to fill in the massive crater. The winner gets a print of the 2009 Corvette ZR1 Blue Devil being lifted out. Related Gallery National Corvette Museum Car Recovery View 25 Photos News Source: Corvettemuseum via YouTubeImage Credit: National Corvette Museum Weird Car News Chevrolet GM Videos National Corvette Museum