The ignition switch from hell

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Bokuhoshi89tchi

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Hi everyone! Don't really know if any of you here is interested in cars (I am tho :D ), in that case you probably already know of this, but in case someone isn't, and hasn't heard of this, then you may be interested :)

So, General Motors has recently recalled almost 3 million vehicles for a fault in the ignition switch: the problem is, if you are a person who tends to attach a lot of stuff to your car key's keyring, the weight the ignition switch has to withstand becomes too much, which may cause the car key to move away from the operating position, causing the engine to switch off out of nowhere with no possibility to restart it quickly (it may also happen if you hit a pothole at a certain speed, or by travelling in some bumpy roads). That means, as soon as that happens, your car's power steering, braking system, and airbags will cease to function, endangering the passengers and the driver (it can easily happen during a corner, for example). Up to today, 13 deaths have already been reported linked to the ignition switch fault, and the recall campaign is still going on.

This fault applies to a lot of vehicles: 2005 to 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2006-2011 Chevrolet HHR, 2007-2010 Pontiac G5 (and Pontiac Pursuit, as it was branded in Canada), 2006-2010 Pontiac Solstice, 2003-2007 Saturn Ion, and 2007-2010 Saturn Sky. Many of these cars are sold even outside of the U.S, and they also have been equipped with the faulty ignition switch (for example, the Opel GT, which is the EU version of the Saturn Sky).

Do any of you/your parents own any of these cars? Did you know about this massive recall? And most importantly, did you have your car recalled? Keep yourself informed on this matter if you do own one of those vehicles, it really is an important safety issue :)

 
It has been going on from March now (even tho they knew about it since 10 years ago or so...), but for example here in Italy it wasn't advertised, not even a tiny bit. And, there are some faulty cars here too, namely the Opel GT. An old friend of mine bought one, and he certainly didn't drive it carefully, luckily he didn't keep it for long (he found it "a bit bring") but still he risked a lot. Yet not a single talk on the newspapers, or in the TV broadcasting, about this major issue.

And there has also been yet another recall a few days ago regarding an airbag failure in a car that's very popular around here (the Chevrolet Aveo, known as Sonic in the US) and yet again, nobody's talked about it...so, in case someone had actually one of those cars, and didn't know anything about it, now they do :) It's way too risky to drive faulty cars, they should've spread the news a bit better outside the US.

 
^^why i drive a crappy car from 1999 with approximately no automated functions

Yeah, heard about this. Scary.

Especially the way GM knew about it early on and covered it up. Smooth.

 
Not as bad as Kia hiding things...

Ya, news got around to the car dealers and recalled things very quickly. The responce however... "I'll do it next Tuesday" type of mood and it doesn't happen. Its also the owners responcibility to keep tabs on their car and an ear open for mishaps. GM does have a website and goole lists recalls on everything...

 
Not as bad as Kia hiding things...

Ya, news got around to the car dealers and recalled things very quickly. The responce however... "I'll do it next Tuesday" type of mood and it doesn't happen. Its also the owners responcibility to keep tabs on their car and an ear open for mishaps. GM does have a website and goole lists recalls on everything...
SailorRosette, I think that hiding things is bad from EVERY company in THE SAME WAY.

And about getting informed on such important errors... I don't think it's only buyer's responsibility: how could one ever even imagine that a commercialized car could have such great problems? If your PC had a toxic and dangerous component that you could be exposed to, wouldn't you like to be informed by the company instead of having to discover it by yourself? Would you ever imagine that such a dangerous thing can be easily buyed without problems?

I think this post was made to inform people outside US, where I can ensure you that news don't come so easily. So, for us it's not that old news :)

Instead, if you know something about Kia maybe you should let us know! I've seen many Kias in my country and I've never heard anything! Maybe it's important and we just don't know!

 
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