Heads up for North America car owners again, as General Motors announced yet another recall of 8.4 million vehicles over safety-related defects, Motoramic reported. According to the automaker, 6.8 million of large cars has an ignition problem that could shut off without warning, and that keychains could be a factor to the accidental shut-off of your engines.
The announcement from GM fell short of discussing what the cause of the new problem is, how the company is expecting to resolve the defect or how long the repairs would take. However, it did say that there have been three deaths linked to the "inadvertent ignition key rotation," but there has yet to be conclusive evidence that would point to the defect as the main reason for the car crashes.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra said in a statement, "We have worked aggressively to identify and address the major outstanding issues that could impact the safety of our customers. If any other issues come to our attention, we will act appropriately and without hesitation."
GM is reportedly urging owners of large cars to remove anything from their keychains to avoid the unintentional engine shut-off until the repairs have been made.
According to the recall, the defect affects 6.8 million 1997-2005 Chevy Malibus, 2000-2005 Impala/Monte Carlos, 1998-2002 Olds Intrigues, 1999-2004 Aleros, 2004-2008 Pontiac Grand Prix and 1999-2005 Pontiac Grand Ams.
Motoramic said the latest recall deepens the crisis the largest automaker in the US is facing as it has recently announced its intention to compensate victims who were killed or injured by faulty ignitions from its first recall. With the latest recall, GM is tasked to fix 29 million cars all over the world with 54 separate campaigns.
With the latest recall, GM has now raised its own estimated recall costs from $1.2 billion for this quarter alone to $2.5 billion for this year.
