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GM issues 4 new recalls for 90k vehicles, Chevy, Buick, GMC affected

One day after releasing an internal report that found a pattern of "incompetence and neglect" within the company, General Motors announced four more recalls that affect 89,126 vehicles. One of the recalls affects 31,520 vehicles that may contain a defect that could prevent airbags from deploying in a car accident. GM said it was aware of at least one crash in which a vehicle occupant sustained an injury because the airbags didn't deploy when they should have. The company said it was aware of other crashes that were similar in nature, but it is not yet known whether they're related to the condition, in which the shorting bar inside the driver's airbag may occasionally contact the airbag terminals. If the car and terminals are touching each other in a crash, the bags will not deploy. Vehicles from the 2012 model year are affected by the problem, and they include the Buick Verano, Chevrolet Camaro, Cruze and Sonic. GM has conducted two previous recalls for this condition involving 7,116 cars. GM is also recalling 57,512 models of the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado 1500, 2014 GMC Sierra 1500 and 2015 Silverado HD, Tahoe and Surburan, as well as the 2015 GMC Sierra HD, Yukon and Yukon XL models because their radio control modules may not work, and thus prevent certain audible safety warnings. Certain models of the 2013-2014 Chevrolet Spark and 2013 Buick Encore are being recalled for a different airbag problem, which could prevent airbags from deploying properly during a crash. And 33 2014 Chevrolet Corvettes are being recalled for yet another airbag problem, in which an internal short circuit could disable the airbags. So far in 2014, General Motors has issued 34 separate recalls that affect approximately 15.9 million vehicles – more than the company has sold in the past five years combined. GM Announces Four Recalls DETROIT – General Motors today announced three safety recalls and one non-compliance recall, all of which were reported to the NHTSA on Thursday, June 5, 2014. In all cases, customers will receive letters from GM letting them know when they can bring their vehicles into a dealership, where all repairs will be performed free of charge and courtesy transportation would be provided as needed.

GM dealers unhappy about pickup prices

The backlash is beginning. Following General Motors' price hike of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra last week, dealers across the country are expressing their ire over increasing prices in the face of rebates and discounts on trucks from Ford and Ram.
Speaking to Automotive News, Sam Pilato, the general manager at Dimmitt Chevrolet in Clearwater, FL, Silverados are "selling very poorly." W. Carrol Smith, the president of Monument Chevrolet in the heart of truck country, Texas, said, "[GM's] position is that the vehicle stands on its own and it doesn't need a bigger rebate. That's not what the market is telling us."
According to AN, that's the general attitude amongst Chevy and GMC dealers across the country, where the twin pickups are getting butchered in sales by competitors offering up to $9,000 off their sticker prices. Part of the problem for GM is that its trucks are arriving on the market near the end of the current F-150's lifecycle, a fact that Ford has taken advantage of.

GM program sees dealers taking on way more loaner cars

Given the volume of vehicles we're talking about, this is a significant development for GM's bottom line. Bring your car into the dealership for service, and you may need a loaner car in exchange. And with so many recalls being carried out, that means a lot of loaners – especially at General Motors dealerships. That could be one of the reasons why GM is massively expanding its loaner fleet program. While many Chevrolet and Buick-GMC dealerships have an on-site rental car location operated by a third party like Enterprise (which may or may not provide a GM vehicle), others manage their own loaner fleets. But while the range of dealerships operating such fleets was once small, reports Automotive News, the number has been growing rapidly: from the locations responsible for only 20 percent of those brands' sales two years ago to about 90 percent today. The impetus for that growth comes down to a massive expansion of GM's Courtesy Transportation Program. The initiative encourages dealers to ramp up their loaner fleet to a maximum size determined by GM, with a mix determined by the dealer itself, so that a showroom in Texas can be bolstered with a fleet of pickup trucks and a dealer in California can employ more Volt and Camaro Convertible loaners. The dealership gets a $500 credit for each vehicle its puts in its fleet, and can use those vehicles as loaners for service customers, as multi-day test drivers or to rent out separately. The vehicles remain in the dealer's fleet for 90 days or 7,500 miles, then they can be sold as used, but with new-car incentives. The dealer gets a fleet of loaners, customers get to use the loaners, try out a new car overnight or buy a barely used car with attractive incentives, and GM gets to clock more sales. But therein lies the kicker: the automaker counts the dispatch of the loaner new vehicle to the dealership as a new-car sale, which could end up distorting its sales figures. Counting loaner vehicles as sold vehicles is something of an industry-standard practice, but given the volume of vehicles we're talking about, this is a significant development for GM's bottom line. One dealership - Paddock Chevrolet in Kenmore, NY, for example - had no loaner fleet two years ago, but now runs a fleet of 50 vehicles. Multiply that by the 4,000 or so dealers GM has across America and you're talking about the potential for hundreds of thousands of these sorts of sales.