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In April
2005, NHTSA
Ratcheted Up Investigation into Collapsing Tailgates of 3.1 Million GM Pickups; in March 2006, GM Recalls 805,368: And the Rest?
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In April 2005, NHTSA Ratcheted Up Investigation into Collapsing Tailgates of 3.1 Million GM Pickups; in March 2006, GM Recalls 805,368: And the Rest?
By James B. Bleeker
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that General Motors Corporation will recall 805,368 1999-2000 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks for a tailgate that may collapse without warning. The collapsing tailgate problem arises, per General Motors, when water corrodes or fractures the braided steel cables that support the tailgate. For repair, GM will replace the galvanized, braided cables with stainless steel cables covered with a different plastic sheathing.
In March 2004, GM recalled 3.66 million 2000-2004 Chevrolet Silverados, 2000-2004 GMC Sierras, 2002-2004 Chevrolet Avalanches, and 2002-2004 Cadillac Escalade EXTs in the U.S. for the same problem. See "Prompted by a Growing Number of Injuries and an Intensified U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Investigation, General Motors Recalls 4 Million Pickups," Auto on Info, March 2004.
In way of explaining why it didn't include the current batch of pickups in its earlier recall, GM's spokesman Alan Adler said that GM had used a different sheathing material for those earlier models1, suggesting that GM had gone from using a better sheathing to using a worse one. Nonetheless, the galvanized, braided steel cable failed with the earlier sheathing as well.
Adler is quoted by the Associated Press as saying that GM "agreed to do the recall to get this behind us." However, of the 1.67 million 1998-2000 Silverado and Sierra pickup trucks under upgraded investigation by NHTSA for the collapsing tailgate problem in April 2005, the current recall encompasses only 805,000. This leaves 865,000 unaccounted for. See "After 13,000 Consumer Complaints and Warranty Claims and 83 Reported Injuries, NHTSA Ratchets Up Investigation into Collapsing Tailgates of Another 3.1 Million GM Pickups," April 2005, Auto on Info.
The Associated Press reports that most of the injuries resulting from collapsing tailgates of the current recalls occurred when people sat on the tailgate or unloaded items from the truck bed. It said that GM had advised owners not to sit on the tailgate; it mentioned nothing as to whether GM had advised owners not to unload from the truck bed.
Owners of GM's 1.43 million 1998-2004 Chevrolet S-10s and GMC Sonomas under upgraded investigation by NHTSA as of April 2005 are not as fortunate as most of the 1998-2004 Silverado and Sierra owners. They will not be receiving a recall notice, but GM announced its willingness to send out a "special policy" letter in June advising 950,000 of them to inspect their tailgate supports and if they think that a problem exists, to take the pickup into the dealership for inspection.
As of April 2005, the frequency of reported injuries for the 1.43 million 1998-2004 S-10s and Sonomas was about half of that for the 1.67 million 1998-2000 Silverados and Sierras, with an average group vehicle age much older than that of the S-10s and Sonomas.2 No explanation was reported for the different treatment accorded S-10 and Sonoma owners, but in April 2005 Adler said, "[T]he trucks are used for very different purposes."2 Maybe owners of S-10s and Sonomas don't unload from the truck bed.
1 "GM Recalls More Silverados, Sierras to Fix Tailgate Supports," Bloomberg, Detroit Free Press, March 11, 2006, at http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060311/BUSINESS01/603110345/1014
2 "After 13,000 Consumer Complaints and Warranty Claims and 83 Reported Injuries, NHTSA Ratchets Up Investigation into Collapsing Tailgates of Another 3.1 Million GM Pickups," April 2005, Auto on Info
Sources for current recall: "GM Recalls More Silverados, Sierras to Fix Tailgate Supports," Bloomberg, Detroit Free Press, March 11, 2006, at http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060311/BUSINESS01/603110345/1014, "GM Recalling 900,000 Pickups," Ken Thomas, the Associated Press, Detroit News, http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060311/AUTO01/603110309/1148/AUTO01, and "GM to Recall 900,000 Pickups: Report," Reuters, March 10, 2006, available at Yahoo! News
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