Ignition recall

[attrapereves]

Anyone else think that people are taking this recall way out of proportion. Yes, it affects a lot of cars, and yes it was a little sleazy of GM, but its not like 1000s of people have died. In fact, in most cases the car would shut off because of people having two tons of weight on their keychains. I feel bad for the current CEO.

 

[Chevy2012sonic]

Not at all it happened to my gf. Her car shut off going down a steep hill. Nothing at all work. Luckily she kepted control of the car or she would of been on of the many that died. I think gm should feel bad and my problem with it is why put a defective part into a car knowing its bad?


2012 chevy sonic

 

[Italianjoe1]

Turning the key to accessory shouldn't keep you from stopping the car and steering the car. People usually have no idea what to do in a situation like that and just panic, which is where accidents happen. If you just slow down and pull over you could figure out what happened and turn your car back on.

The initial cause of most deaths was lack of airbag deployment in severe crashes where the ignition toggled off before the car hit something solid enough to activate the SRS system. People go crashing off the road, bounce up and out of a ditch, then hit a tree. Snice the key turned off at the ditch, the tree just stops the car dead with no airbags, and people get hurt/killed. From the initial recall info all the crashes would have happened anyway, just would have reduced the severity of the injuries probably.

Driver education might actually reduce the number of crashes, but nobody seems to care about that.

 

[attrapereves]

Driver education might actually reduce the number of crashes, but nobody seems to care about that.

I can't believe they don't teach what to do in case of a blow out, spin out, or loss of power in driver's ed here. All of this is taught when taking driving lessons in Europe.

My D.E. class in high school could have been done completely online or by reading books yourself.

 

[mitdr774]

Not at all it happened to my gf. Her car shut off going down a steep hill. Nothing at all work. Luckily she kepted control of the car or she would of been on of the many that died. I think gm should feel bad and my problem with it is why put a defective part into a car knowing its bad?


2012 chevy sonic

What is on her key ring? Did the ignition turn back to acc. or was it something else?

13 people have died, and from what I have come across so far just about all the accidents resulting in death involved high speeds, leaving the road, hitting a solid object, lack of seat belt, and alcohol. Some listed excessive **** on the key ring as well. 13 is not many given the number of vehicles on the road using that part.

It has been known for decades that it is not a good idea to have more than maybe a couple keys and the fob on the key ring. Ignition switches turning back due to heavy key rings is not a new occurrence. I used to deal with this in the dealer. A customer would complain about this issue and leave the spare set of keys. Once I couldnt duplicate the issue I would have to NPF the car and ship it. Then when the customer would come in and pull out the 10 pound key chain we would have to explain what was going on.

I would have no issue with owning and driving a Cobalt right now. The recall would not deter me in any way.

 

[Blue hedgehog]

I know the sonic isn't part of the recall, and doesn't use the same parts.

Over the winter I hit a road crater and had my ignition turn off. My key chain only has my car key (in the ignition obviously), 3 normal house key type keys, and my tool box key (about the size of a master lock key). I wouldn't think it should have turned off. I've had many more keys on key chains in the past and never had that happen before. Could that road crater been deeper than others I've hit? Possibly, but still, they should make the ignition switch be able to handle more than 4 keys. I'd bet most people have at least 4 keys on their key ring.

 

[ChrisJ]

My understanding was the cars don't just shut off but the steering column also locks.
If that is true, that really bites the big one.

 

[Eric Smit]

there is a reason I never put another key or charm on my ignition key.

 

[River_Rat]

 

[qwed94]

Well I think the "big deal" about the ignition switch recall is that GM knew there was a problem, and just swept it under the rug. --- Im not trying to downplay what "could" be considered common sense (like knowing how to steer/stop a dead car, or not having a heavy keychain).

Im just saying that it is irresponsible for a company to know of a problem (not to mention a problem that could cause a fatality), and cover it up. Then to add to that, they not only covered it up, but continued using the bad switch. That is what "I believe" the real problem is. Much like the dreaded Toyota (wide open throttle) problem. They hid it too for a long time.

 

[SuperFudd]

qwed94,
You mean like how Chevy replaces defective Sonic water pumps with defective water pumps? Same with the tie rod ends (with defective tie rod ends, NOT water pumps)?
Anyhow,
I am thinking I could try to simulate a Sonic ignition switch (not "ignition" as the talking head idiots call it) failure by driving 70 and turning off the ignition switch. Should be fun and maybe even exiting. Better still, one of you should try it.

 

[Italianjoe1]

Going one notch back, to Acc or even Off, won't lock the wheel. You will lose power steering assist, but as a regular driver of a vehicle with manual steering, that's not really an issue at anything other than a complete stop. Power brakes going out due to loss of engine vacuum is more unsettling and not as easily compensated for if you don't know what happens, but there is also a reserve of vacuum in the booster for 1-2 stops with some assist, you don't instantly get a hard pedal and reduced braking.

As mentioned above, it's not about the key turning off being bad as much as it is them knowing there was a problem with a fairly small part and just flat out refusing to address it. That's bad news, and them getting caught now is not good at all.

I'll still keep my cobalt, i'm not worried lol.

 

[ChrisJ]

Well I think the "big deal" about the ignition switch recall is that GM knew there was a problem, and just swept it under the rug. --- Im not trying to downplay what "could" be considered common sense (like knowing how to steer/stop a dead car, or not having a heavy keychain).

Im just saying that it is irresponsible for a company to know of a problem (not to mention a problem that could cause a fatality), and cover it up. Then to add to that, they not only covered it up, but continued using the bad switch. That is what "I believe" the real problem is. Much like the dreaded Toyota (wide open throttle) problem. They hid it too for a long time.

I've got a friend that ended up with issues with a GM so he's been posting endless B.S. about this and yet has never said a word about Toyota. It's really getting old fast. He loves his Toyotas and they do no wrong.

 

[423]

From the information available, there seems little doubt GM should have been more proactive with this and moved forward to place their customers first.
I also feel the "fatality-injury stats" blamed on this issue are skewed a bit.
Anyone would we hard pressed to claim the above stats were due solely to this ignition switch problem. There are numerous dynamics in any crash and other contributing factors leading up to the end results they quote.

423

 

[Lazza]

With GM it is a case of "stupid is as stupid does".

Years ago it was diagnosed that the ignition switches caused problems and, in rare cases, serious/fatal accidents. It was also determined that fixing the problem would not be terribly expensive. But GM obviously thought the problem could be swept under the rug and, eventually would go away by itself (..as the cars aged and became disused). No doubt they feared announcing a big recall, especially after major mess Toyota got themselves into a few years back. And in 2009/2010 GM was essentially broke, so during that time they probably loathed to spend money on anything.

The right choice would have been to stay ahead of the problem, do the recall, take a small financial hit, and apologize profusely.

Bottom line: I don't feel sorry for GM about this, nor do I think the bad press is unjustified.


_Lazza

 

[ShadowRS]

My family has had 3 different cobalts, 1 cobalt ss, 1 cobalt lt and one pontiac g5.... My sis still has the lt and we went for a cruise and beat the **** out of the key area... didn't shut off...

Another thing to look at is that the deaths associated also have things such as no seat belts, alcohol, speeding.... I agree that the main issue is that GM swept it under the rug hoping it wouldn't come back. I feel this is the same issue with the 6 speed MT transmissions. They know there is a shift grind problem, but they won't fix it.

I have never heard of the cobalt shutting off randomly until this recall happened. I would also be pointing fingers at the NHTSA as they also said a recall wasn't necessary. I do find it unsettling that a recall wasn't put into place earlier though as they knew the switches were bad.

I got rid of my cobalt for other crap breaking, the car ran and shifted beautifully. Never an issue in that department. You thought about the interior and it scuffed.

 

[Eric Smit]

For the love of god, there is a tsb that fixes your transmission grind.

 

[qwed94]

No I wasnt saying they replaced defective switches with defective switches. I was trying to say. GM knew the switches were bad, yet still installed them at the factory.

These are not my words. Every news channel I have watched has worded it about this way. Personally, my Son has an infected Saturn. His has never caused trouble. Most Cobalts havent either. Im just saying "according to the media" GM continued to install faulty switches after they learned of the problem.

You must ask. Did they really "know" what the problem was? It can take years to find things out sometimes, is this one of those times? Or did GM really ignore the problem? Who knows?

 

[KartRacer]

For the love of god, there is a tsb that fixes your transmission grind.

Would love to have information about the TSB.the dealer does not seem to know about it.

 

[Blue hedgehog]

Would love to have information about the TSB.the dealer does not seem to know about it.

Don't know the tsb# but they need to readjust the shift cable