General Motors (GM) announced Friday that it was adding 971,000 vehicles to the recent ignition switch recall. This brings the total number of affected vehicles to 2.59 million.
The automaker expanded the recall to include 2008-2010 Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5, Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Ion and Saturn Sky models. Already named in the recall are the 2005-2007 Chevrolet Cobalts, 2007 Pontiac G5s, 2003-2007 Saturn Ions, 2006-2007 Chevrolet HHRs, 2006-2007 Pontiac Solstices and 2007 Saturn Skys.
Jim Cain, spokesman for GM, said there were about 95,000 faulty switches sold to dealers and aftermarket wholesalers. Of those, about 90,000 were used for repairs in the vehicles that were already recalled.
At least 12 deaths have been linked to the defective ignition switch in the first round of recalled vehicles. According to GM, no injuries or deaths have been linked to the newly recalled models.
According to GM, the company is being extra cautious with the recall to make sure no one else is injured by the faulty switch.
“We know that these vehicles were built with good switches but what we don’t know: Were any of them repaired with a bad switch,” Cain said. “So out of an abundance of caution we’re just going to replace the switches in all of them.”
All the recent recalls have raised concerns.
“The first impression is: Geez, these guys have recalls going on like crazy,” said Karl Brauer. “But their approach to the whole thing is that we’re being ultracautious because that’s what the new GM is when it comes to safety issues and vehicle defects.”
In the U.S. alone, 2.2 million vehicles are affected by the recall.
