General Motors ordered Chevrolet Cruze sales halted over an air bag issue that has plagued the industry in recent years. The halt on sales applies to 2013 and 2014 versions of the company’s most popular car because of a problem with the air bags made by Japanese supplier Takata.
GM announced Wednesday that about 33,000 Cruze sedans may have a faulty driver’s side inflator because of a wrong part being used in them, reports the New York Times .
GM spokesman Greg Martin explained, “We are working diligently with the supplier of the defective part to identify specific vehicles affected and expect to resume deliveries by the end of this week, once the vehicles are identified.”
General Motors isn’t the first car company to either recall or halt sales of one of its most popular cars to deal with the Takata air bag problem. The company’s safety devices were the subject of a recall involving millions of vehicles manufactured by Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota, and BMW. The inflator on those vehicles could contain a propellant that will explode in some situations.
The problem that GM announced involves a different aspect of the inflator and deals with how they are assembled, rather than the propellant used.
Jim Cain, another spokesman for GM, noted, “Theirs is a chemistry issue, ours is a mechanical one.”
Ordering Chevy Cruze sales halted may seem like an extreme decision, but General Motors believes it to be necessary, according to USA Today . The affected vehicles are mostly in the United States and Canada and the company believes it is close to identifying the affected cars. Once they are identified, GM will lift the stop-sale order.
Even a temporary halt will put a dent in GM’s June sales. The Cruze is the company’s top-selling car and its No. 2-selling vehicle of any kind after its Chevrolet Silverado.
Chevrolet’s new air bag issue is different from the chemical degradation issue, which has caused seven automakers to recall more than 10 million vehicles since 2008. Still, the stop-sale order and a possible recall is the latest setback for the American manufacturer which has already recalled more vehicles this year than any other year in its history.
The manufacturer is the under intense scrutiny for a defective ignition switch in older model Chevrolet Cobalt, Pontiac 6, Saturn Ion, and Saturn Sky cars. Wednesday’s announcement also makes for the second stop-sale order on the Cruze in 2014. A previous order covered the same model years and was followed a few days later with a recall of almost 175,000 of the cars.
GM is expected to keep Chevrolet Cruze sales halted until the end of the week, at least and could issue a recall after sales resume.
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