Are Consumers Paying Attention To The General Motors Recall?

So far, just this year, General Motors has issued 44 recalls in North America.

More than 20 million vehicles have been affected worldwide, a figure that exceeds total annual vehicle sales in all of the United States.

Last week, GM recalled 3.36 million more cars for ignition defects that could result in keys carrying extra weight to slip out of position and shut the vehicle off abruptly and potentially causing airbags to fail in the event of a crash.

Consumers Tuning Out GM Recalls

According to a news report in The Post Gazette, consumers still don’t seem to be paying too much attention to the GM debacle.

In spite of the slew of recalls, GM’s monthly sales in May rose to their highest level since August 2008. Sales of vehicles to individual buyers, according to the report, were up 10 percent and total sales rose by 13 percent.

It was the company’s best May in seven years.

Why are consumers tuning out GM recall news?

Experts at the Center for Automotive Research say it may be because recalls have become far too frequent and commonplace that they are just “background noise” to consumers.

In this day and age when companies issue recalls for, say, a sticker inside the car bearing the wrong recommended tire pressure, consumers are increasingly taking recalls less seriously, according to experts.

Ignoring Vehicle Recalls A Dangerous Thing to Do

Consumers must absolutely sit up and pay attention to news about GM recalls – especially if they or someone they know own a GM vehicle that has been recalled.

Considering the number of recalls issued by the automaker this year, the odds of your GM vehicle being part of a recall are very high.

The problem with recalls is that they put the onus on consumers to pay attention and bring their cars in for repair.

Consider some of the most disturbing issues here. GM deliberately avoided recalling millions of vehicles it knew were defective. So far, 13 people have died as a result of those defects

The first-known fatality involving a GM small car was Shara Lynn Towne, whose family our firm represented in a wrongful death lawsuit against GM. Since then, there have been 12 others – potentially more.

GM could have fixed these ignition defects for under $1 per vehicle. Instead, the company seems to have made a conscious choice to cover up and stall.

This news is not and should not be just background noise. This is not the time for apathy. This is an issue calls for our collective outrage as a nation.