Most people know about the Toyota recalls for faulty brakes and accelerator pedals. It’s been all over the news, the CEO of Toyota had to appear before Congress to explain his company’s (supposed) lack of response to this “serious safety concern” and whatever else. Meanwhile, Government Motors has recalled 1.3 million vehicles for a potentially lethal failure in their power steering and nobody cares.
Nobody, that is, except the Huffington Post. Which is where I, even as someone who’s pretty plugged in to the automotive world (and who is always looking for a way to make fun of GM), had to go to find out about this recall. It’s massive.
The recall was issued on Monday and involves 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac compact cars in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Wait.. they sell cars in Mexico? I thought they just made them there. Wow, two things I learned from Huff Post..
The recall is for faulty power steering. To be more precise, it’s for power steering motors that can fail. As in you’re cruising down the road and suddenly, no steering. I had a 1983 Pontiac Sunfire once that would do that. Lucky for me, the car was stolen so I could stop shoving money down that POS rat hole. Worst car ever made. Even my Ford Ranger that had been beaten to hell ran better than that little crap car.
So back to the GM recalls.
Even with this potentially fatal problem, GM claims that it’s OK for drivers to continue using their cars until parts are in to repair them. Don’t worry, there’s a warning light and a chiming sound when your power steering fails. OnStar will be there to record your last words too. See? GM cares about their customers.
Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been pretending to investigate this problem for a few months now, though they haven’t let anyone else know about it. They’ve received 1,100 complaints so far regarding it. That includes 14 crashes and one injury. How many Toyota complaints did they have that they were so proud to announce publicly? A hundred or so?
But since the U.S. Government owns the lion’s share of GM now, and the rest is owned by the United Auto Workers union, concerns about GM’s safety aren’t nearly as important. Right, comrade?
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haha, awesome. I now have a 14 year old Toyota pickup that’s running like a champ. The Ranger was a 1986 and was about 12 when I got it. Great truck except it was at the end of its years, so it required a lot of work. At least you could get in there to work on it, though. Not like the Solstice. :/
March 3, 2010 at 10:57
Chrysler is disappearing fast and when the joke called the Volt comes out GM probably will too. Great post!
March 3, 2010 at 11:05
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Yep, can’t go after Government Motors, after all things are supposed to be better now. By the way, I have a 9 year old Ranger beaten to crap and it still runs well!
March 3, 2010 at 10:54