Thursday, July 9, 2015

Nearly 200,000 Hummers Recalled After Fires Are Reported to G.M.


The recall affects 165,000 Hummer H3s and H3Ts in the United States. Credit General Motors, via Associated Press
General Motors is recalling about 196,000 Hummer sport utility vehicles because of an electrical problem that resulted in at least two vehicles being destroyed in fires, the automaker said on Wednesday.

An electrical part of the heating and cooling system could overheat and cause a fire inside the dashboard, the automaker said. Three people suffered minor burns.

“There was a funny smell. I immediately stopped and told my passenger to get out and noticed a fire under the passenger glove box,” one Hummer owner wrote the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in June 2014. “I tried pouring milk and juice on the fire to put it out under the dash but it didn’t put the fire completely out. The vehicle quickly went up in flames.”
Hummer owners filed at least 20 complaints with the safety agency about fires inside the dashboard, and two said the vehicles were destroyed. The safety agency began receiving complaints about the problem in 2008. Over all, G.M. said that there were 42 reported fires.

The recall includes 165,000 vehicles in the United States and includes the Hummer H3 from the 2006-10 model years and the H3T from 2009-10.

“The N.H.T.S.A. needs to investigate this or are you waiting for an actual fire to cause G.M. to fix this issue,” one owner wrote the agency in June 2013. There was no indication on the safety agency’s website that regulators had opened an investigation.

An internal audit by the Transportation Department last month said that the safety agency had moved too slowly on many investigations.

Mark R. Rosekind, the agency’s administrator, told a congressional subcommittee last month that the agency lacked the resources it needed. That statement contrasts with ones from his predecessors, including David L. 

Strickland, that the agency was adequately funded and doing a good job.
Also on Wednesday, G.M. said it would recall about 51,000 Chevrolet cars, including almost 46,000 in the United States, because of a radio software problem that could disable some audible warning functions including seatbelts not being fastened or the door being opened with the key still in the ignition. 

That recall includes the 2014-15 Chevrolet Spark and the 2015 Sonic.