General Motors LLC said on Tuesday it is recalling nearly 60,000 Saturn Auras from model years 2007 and 2008 in the U.S. and Canada because of a problem where the shift cable can wear out, resulting in shift levers that can show the wrong gear. Saturn Aura vehicles with a four-speed automatic transmission have a condition where the transmission shift cable can break at any time.
As a result, the driver may not be able to select a different gear. The automaker said the cars could roll away when drivers think the vehicle is in Park because of a flaw that sometimes incorrectly displays the wrong gear in the gear selector. Gear shift cables can break even while the vehicle is being driven.
GM is currently aware of 28 vehicle crashes and four injuries resulting from this problem but no deaths.
The vehicles being recalled are all from model years 2007 and 2008. Owners will be asked to take their vehicles to a dealership to have the gear shift cable assembly replaced.
GM didn’t recall these cars sooner because, beginning in November 2011, owners had already been given special extended warranty coverage that covered this problem, the automaker said in a statement. Customers typically detect changes in the feel of the gear selector, GM said, so owners would be able to request a repair before any problem occurred.
“We decided to recall because the terms of the Special Coverage were beginning to expire as the vehicles aged and changed owners,” GM said in a statement. “And customer complaints continued even after the Special Coverage was in effect.”
Since its recall of 2.6 million compact and sports cars over a problem with ignition switches, a problem the automaker had known about for 10 years, GM has been facing increased scrutiny over its response to safety issues. The automaker has pledged to respond more quickly in the future when recalls are needed. GM has announced a number of recalls since then including a recent one of 52,000 SUVs for a fuel gauge issue.
Still, GM was accused of being slow to respond to a power steering issue in Saturn Ions.
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