Documents posted online by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have shed some light on the stop-delivery order issued to Chevrolet and GMC dealers ahead the launch of the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon pickups.
In October, GM notified NHTSA that a safety recall would be issued to address improperly wired airbags in the brand-new trucks, but did not elaborate on the number of affected vehicles or the frequency of the defects.
In October, GM notified NHTSA that a safety recall would be issued to address improperly wired airbags in the brand-new trucks, but did not elaborate on the number of affected vehicles or the frequency of the defects.
The documents, located by Reuters, indicate that more than 2,000 trucks were held by the stop-sale, and 100% of those trucks were known to have been improperly wired. The incorrect wiring reversed the sequence of deployment of the trucks’ multi-stage airbags.
GM dealers were able to reprogram the trucks’ safety control modules to compensate for the reversed wiring, allowing the defect to be addressed without any physical repairs.
The Canyon and Colorado are GM’s big move to reclaim the midsize pickup category, a segment that has been essentially abandoned by domestic auto manufacturers. Currently, the Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier are their only high-volume competitors.
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