GM to Recall Crossovers - Analyst Blog

General Motors (GM) announced that it will recall 111,136 units of some of its mid-size crossover lineups next month due to a defective anchor to the seatbelt buckle that could lead to injuries in a crash.

The recalled lineups include Chevy Equinox (67,805 units), GMC Terrain (29,926 units) and Cadillac SRX (13,405 units) from the 2011 model year. As many as 97,843 units of these vehicles were sold in the U.S. and the rest in Canada and Mexico.

GM revealed that the defective buckles were supplied by Autoliv Inc. (ALV), the Swedish manufacturer of automotive safety systems. However, Autoliv has outsourced the manufacturing of these buckles to Hyojin, based in Korea.

GM has neither received any reports of injuries nor crashes caused by the defective buckles in the vehicles, and the problem was detected only during testing in September. It will repair the vehicles free of cost next month.

Last month, GM recalled 20,000 vehicles of two of its Cadillac models in order to replace the glove compartment boxes in the vehicles that could cause leg injuries in a crash. The recall included 5,000 vehicles of Cadillac CTS and CTS-V models of 2009, and more than 15,000 vehicles of the same models of 2010.

Since the beginning of the year, GM has recalled about 3 million vehicles in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and South Korea. Among these, the largest recall was made in June, involving 1.5 million vehicles, in order to fix a problem with a heated windshield wiper fluid system that has been causing fire in the vehicles.

The June recall affected 2006 to 2009 model years of Buick Lucerne, Cadillac DTS, and Hummer H2; 2008-2009 Buick Enclave and Cadillac CTS; 2007-2009 Cadillac Escalade, Escalade ESV and Escalade EXT; 2007-2009 Chevrolet Avalanche, Silverado, Suburban and Tahoe; 2007-2009 GMC Acadia, Sierra, Yukon and Yukon XL; 2007-2009 Saturn Outlook; and 2009 Chevrolet Traverse.

In fact, it was GM's second recall over the same issue in two years. In August 2008, the automaker recalled 900,000 vehicles due to the same problem of a heated washer fluid system on the back of a short circuit on the circuit board that overheated the ground wire in the vehicles.

Automotive safety recalls have become the talk of the town after Toyota Motors' (TM) announcement of the largest-ever cumulative global recall of 11 million vehicles since September last year. The Japanese automaker's recall was related to problems such as faulty accelerator gas pedals and slipping floor mats as well as defective braking systems.

The string of recalls has led Toyota to face numerous personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits in federal courts. The U.S. government has also imposed the highest-ever fine of $16.4 million on Toyota, accusing it of a deliberate delay in recalling the vehicles by hiding its flaws even though manufacturers are legally obligated to notify the U.S. safety regulators within five business days once they come to know of a safety defect.