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UAW quiet on GM’s recall of 1.3M compacts for steering problem

Karma: action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation

Amid the public crucifiction of Toyota, the government/UAW-owned General Motors has a little, teeney-weeney, itsy-bitsy recall problem of its own.

From the Associated Press:

General Motors Co. said Monday it will recall 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac compact cars sold in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to fix power steering motors that can fail.

The recall affects 2005 to 2010 Chevrolet Cobalts, 2007 to 2010 Pontiac G5s, 2005 and 2006 Pontiac Pursuits sold in Canada and 2005 and 2006 Pontiac G4s sold in Mexico.

The automaker said the vehicles are still safe to drive and never lose their steering, but it may be harder to steer them when traveling under 15 mph.

[snip]

GM told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about the recall on Monday. NHTSA began an investigation into 905,000 of the models on Jan. 27 after getting 1,100 complaints that the cars lost their power steering assist. The complaints included 14 crashes and one injury.

Read more here.

No telling if government/UAW-owned GM execs will get the same Congressional UAW-inspired grilling from the politicians that Toyota execs received.

Somehow, we doubt it.
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.”
Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

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COMMENTS

  • nessa

    I hope Toyota picks this up and starts to run with it.

    • E Pluribus Unum

      I’ve got an oblique reference to it in my post this morning.

  • JadedByPolitics

    happens to him in his car or there will be HELL to pay! If they think those whiney little twits who sat before Congress against Toyota were sympathetic they will BEG ME TO GO AWAY but I will not and I will make it my life to destroy them :)

    • Richard Mullins

      and if you don’t keep the Power Steering Reservoir high, it get hard to steer without lots of force. I don’t have that problem Toyota cars that have ATF for Power Steering or Electric Steering. Also, synthetic Power Steering Fluid works very well.

      • JadedByPolitics

        of this recall, they do not have an paperwork and CANNOT tell owner’s when to expect to have the problem corrected. I tell you its like dealing with……oh yeah that right it is dealing with the Government!

  • http://www.dcworksforus.com Kenny Solomon

    After all, if it wasn’t for Darth Cheney inventing the earthquake machine to cause global warming, forcing the polar bears to use suntan lotion and learn to surf tsunamis, then there wouldn’t be a need tor Algore to fly all over the world on his private airplane to force everybody into these cars in the first place.

    I’ll bet the media is gonna have a “slightly different” take on this IF they even mention the ‘little problem’.

    • acat

      Hot Air contributor MadisonConservative dug the quote out of the article:

      http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/03/02/government-motors-puts-its-accelerator-in-its-mouth/

      Here’s the money quote:

      GM blamed the fault on a supplier partially owned by Toyota.

      GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz told the BBC at the Geneva Motor show:

      • http://www.laborunionreport.comandhttp://www.laborunionreport.blogspot.com LaborUnionReport

        Though seemingly far-fetched, this is not out of the realm of possibilities:

        http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/dieckmann/100301

        Sabotage surely seems like a possibility in Toyota’s unexpected acceleration problem. It would be hard to deny that there is plenty of motive for such a dastardly deed that has been blamed for 34 deaths.

        First, we have the political motive. Obama’s takeover of GM and Chrysler

        • jimmyg

          The author discounted the sabotage theory.
          “In conclusion I tend to rule out sabotage as the cause of Toyota’s unexpected accelartion problem but it was an interesting thought.”

          • http://www.laborunionreport.comandhttp://www.laborunionreport.blogspot.com LaborUnionReport
  • Scope

    on the news. Yeah!

  • Go_GM

    March 2 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received reports of 43 fatal crashes involving sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles since 2000.

    The crashes caused a total of 52 deaths and 38 injuries, the agency said today in an e-mailed statement on data through last month.

    1 injury has been reported on the power steering issue. You can politicize this to death, but the issue remains, it’s not the same threat.

    • nessa

      As EPU discussed in his diary, ” An unholy trinity guns for Toyota – and for you”.

      Does it require more deaths to shine some light on the government, part owner of GM, abusing it’s power to stifle competition in the auto industry? This does show that mistakes are made in design and manufacturing, GM is no more immune from it than is Toyota, Ford or any other manufacturer. That the apparent defect is most noticable BELOW 15 mph is sheer luck, it could just as easily have been at speeds above 70. I think there would have been deaths then. Same problem two different standards of dealing with it.

      So, is our government going to treat all the parties involved equally? Call the GM execs in to testify as they did Toyota? Are Government officials going to make inflammatory statements to the American Public damaging GMs reputation and sales?

      The Government shouldn’t be in the auto industry and this is one of many reasons why.

      • http://www.laborunionreport.comandhttp://www.laborunionreport.blogspot.com LaborUnionReport

        The whole UAW/government slam of Toyota has less to do about safety than UAW interests. The brouhaha over Toyota has to do with the company’s decision to get out of the NUMMI plant in NorCal…a decision that was made after Government Motors got out.

        The UAW should be protesting outside the White House instead of at Toyota.

        UAW lobbyist Alan Reuther demanded Toyota make amends by keeping open a unionized factory in California, currently scheduled for closure. Chrysler, GM and Ford started offering cash incentives for car buyers to trade in recalled Toyotas for domestic wares.

        http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703315004575073730423195928.html

        • E Pluribus Unum

          What a load of self-serving, selective crap by the UAW.

          • nessa

            …management and business. The old GM/UAW plant at Fremont, pre-NUMMI, was a nightmare, slip-shod production, abysmal quality, horrendous accident rates, a 20%+ daily absentee rate. Toyota’s methods were instrumental in changing this into a model of quality, efficiency and employee safety culture.

            They accomplished this with the same UAW employees who had threatened strike and walkout and refused to cooperate on any improvements. If they could do this with what was considered the most troublesome GM/UAW plant in existence is it any wonder the UAW can’t get it’s hooks into Toyota’s workforce now? Without gov’t intervention anyway.

    • http://www.laborunionreport.comandhttp://www.laborunionreport.blogspot.com LaborUnionReport

      There has been a concerted effort to destroy Toyota’s reputation–even though each of the Big Three have had death-related recalls in the past (remember Pinto, Corvair, etc?).

      The ‘politicization’ (as you call it) is exposing the hypocrisy of the UAW-controlled political puppets.

  • http://www.laborunionreport.comandhttp://www.laborunionreport.blogspot.com LaborUnionReport

    http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/F/News

  • Common_Cents

    Remember, liberals are always victims. They are never responsibile for themselves. Govt Motors is taking the cue and is now no exception.

  • 6eorge Jetson

  • Flagstaff

    Buy a new Ford and support the one American auto company that isn’t yet sucking on a government teat.