Currently, the agency is conducting its own investigation and claims that the ignition switch defect in General Motors was known as early as 2004. From 2005 to 2006, the company's dealers were sent corresponding instructions, according to which, as part of maintenance, ignition switches were replaced on 474 vehicles. However, a mass recall of all cars with this ignition switch was not announced.
On February 13, 2014, GM announced a recall of more than 780,000 Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5s, 2005-2007 model years. A little later, the concern increased the number of recalled models to 842 thousand cars. Now there is information that General Motors is recalling over 1.5 million cars.
The defect itself is quite banal – a heavy keychain or just a bumpy road can lead to spontaneous shutdown of the ignition. As a result, the power steering and brakes are turned off, and airbags also do not deploy. The NHTSA investigation should determine how timely and to what extent GM responded to information about this defect.
In Europe, 2,300 Opel GT 2007 model year cars are subject to the recall campaign. Opel has already stated that they are not aware of any accidents or injuries caused by the faulty ignition switch.
