Personal Injury Blog

General Motors Recall of 1.5 Million Cars Due to Fire Hazard

September 30th, 2011
General Motors Recall

The company will also offer each owner of a recalled vehicle $100 in compensation

General Motors recall of 1.5 million cars and trucks was announced because of a fire hazard. The recall includes

  • 2006 to 2009 Buick Lucerne, Cadillac DTS and Hummer H2
  • 2007 to 2009 Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Avalanche, Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Suburban, GMC Acadia, GMC Sierra, GMC Yukon, Saturn Outlook
  • 2008 to 2009 Buick Enclave, Cadillac CTS
  • 2009 Chevrolet Traverse

According to General Motors, the recall has been announced because the heater washer fluid could short-circuit, leading to a fire. According to the automaker, it has informed its dealers to permanently disable the heater washer fluid system. The company will also offer each owner of a recalled vehicle $100 in compensation.

This isn’t the first time that these vehicles have been linked to problems like this. Approximately 2/3rd of these vehicles were involved in a recall announced two years ago by General Motors for the exact same problem. General Motors attempted to fix that problem by installing new wiring, but there were further reports of overheating in the models that had received the new wiring.

Soon, the company that made the heater washer fluid system filed for bankruptcy, and General Motors stopped offering that feature in its models. The company that went bankrupt was the only supplier of that technology, and when it went bankrupt, GM had no other option, but to withdraw the feature. General Motors says that it’s not possible to offer the feature again, and is confirming that the $100 refund is for the feature loss, and not for the recall.

According to General Motors, it has received complaints of up to five fires from the heater wash fluid system. However, there have been no reports of any injuries or accidents from the defect. Of the recalled vehicles, approximately 155,000 are in the US.

The recall comes in the same week as Chrysler announced a massive recall of about 7,000 vehicles for brake hazards. Chrysler’s recall involved more than 280,000 Jeep Wrangler Warriors between 2001 and 2010. The recall was linked to a defect in the brake lines, which ultimately led to leakage of fluid. According to Chrysler, it has no information of any incidents, accidents or injuries related to this defect. Chrysler also recalled more than 284,000 Dodge Grand Caravan, and 2009 Chrysler Town and Country minivans. That recall was linked to a sliding door defect that caused the hinge to wear out, causing short-circuiting, and possibly a fire.

All these recent recalls have increased scrutiny over auto defects. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last week confirmed that it has at least 89 confirmed reports of deaths involving sudden and unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles. The Toyota crisis and the massive recalls that have followed are still fresh in everyone’s minds. It is also clear to California accident lawyers that these frequent recalls and problems will continue until we have stronger federal auto safety legislation that includes greater powers for the NHTSA.

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