General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is finding it difficult to entice car owners to avail of repairs at dealerships after the car maker has issued a series of recall, the latest of which is on account of faulty ignition switches. GM reports that it has readied the materials needed to replace ignition switches of approximately 1.96 million cars that have been subject of the company’s recall procedure in the U.S. as early as October, but car owners who availed of the repairs covers only 55.7% of the vehicles recalled as of November 20, leaving a substantial number of defective vehicles still running in U.S. highways.
The Detroit based automaker says that out of an estimated 2.36 million vehicles with faulty ignition switches still used by car owners on a global scale, repairs has been done to a total number of 1.36 million cars as of November 24. General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) initially announced a recall for 2.59 million cars early in February and March this year covering small cars as well as older Chevrolets and Saturn Ions. In an email to The Detroit News, GM spokesman Alan Adler attributed the difference in the number of cars sought to be recalled by GM and its current estimates of cars still in use to vehicles untraceable by registration as well as scrapped vehicles.
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) has tried reaching out to car owners through letters and emails, but several car owners, after an initial response, have not pushed through with the installation of new ignition switches. Trying to get these customers proceed with the necessary repairs, GM has used Facebook and online game Roku to reach out to them. The company even offered a gift card worth $25 to those who will have their cars attended to for repairs before January 1 of next year. Center for Auto Safety executive director Clarence Ditlow commended the use of gift card as a “smart move”, noting that it way much cheaper than having to pay a $25 million worth of adverse judgement because of a car related injury attributable to a faulty vehicle.
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is currently facing a state suit filed against it by the state of Arizona. The state claims that GM have intentionally defrauded its consumers by not disclosing for years to the public the serious defects in the cars it made. The suit, the first major legal battle the car maker is facing after its series of recalls, amounts to $3 billion.
This article has been written by Nonito Guntan.
General Motors Company (GM) Ready For High-End Management Transitions, GM Canada Gets New President
General Motors Company (GM) Finds Itself in Financial Soup
