NEW DELHI: General Motors has recalled 1.55 lakh cars in India over a potential safety issue. This is the second-largest car recall in India after Ford’s 1.66 lakh units in September 2013.
GM India said the recall will cover Chevrolet Spark, Beat minis and the Enjoy MPV, the vehicles with a remote keyless entry accessory. These are manufactured between 2007 and 2014.
The latest exercise follows another call back in 2013 by GM India when 1.14 lakh units of Tavera MPV were recalled to fix emission and other regulatory issues. The issue had sparked off a debate across the auto industry over customer safety and saw the initiation of an inquiry against the company by an official committee, which had accused the company of engaging in a “corporate fraud” in the handling of the issue.
“GM India has been made aware of some isolated cases where some Chevrolet Spark, Beat and Enjoy vehicles were fitted with a faulty accessory,” the company said, adding that the vehicles “could experience damage due to inappropriate routing.”
The company claimed that the remote keyless entry accessory “meets all the relevant regulatory standards”. “GM India will contact all affected customers to correct the fitting of the remote keyless entry accessory free of charge. If a customer has any concerns regarding the performance of their remote keyless entry accessory, we ask them to visit their nearest Chevrolet dealer for a free inspection,” it added.
Vehicle recalls are not seen as a positive exercise in India with car companies fearing an adverse impact on demand after they call back vehicles to fix defects. While the government had been considering to make call backs mandatory, it is yet to become a reality.
Maruti, Tata Motors, Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Mahindra & Mahindra have also called back vehicles earlier. Recently, many of the Japanese manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan had to call back many vehicles across the globe over problems with Takata airbag.