US Recall News Reports:
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| Ba Da Bing! Volt crash test |
Although, as of the date of this article, they have not yet received any confirmed “real-world” reports of this problem resulting in a fire, the NHTSA is concerned because a Chevrolet Volt caught fire in the parking lot three weeks after a side-impact crash test.
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| Chevy Volt |
I believe that in their haste to bring a "green" vehicle to market, the technology was not fully tested. Granted, there are many electric vehicle behaviors that we will not recognize until they have been in service for some time. We have not used them in place of regular gas motors yet, so there is bound to be a learning curve. Face facts, the power delivery system should have been gone through with a "fine toothed" comb. If for no other reason than the technology's longevity had not been tested. But come on! Three weeks worth of testing should have been done by the battery manufacturer to catch this defect. Now this creates a blemish on the face of the vehicle that was supposed to save and grow GM, like the K car to Chrysler. No worries though, GM will bounce back quickly if the marketing team puts a positive spin on it and the design team fixes the problem permanently and quickly. If you remember the Ford and Firestone fiasco from 2000, you know a car company can come back from anything, As quoted by CNN Money in September of 2000:
Federal safety officials say up to 88 deaths in the United States may have been caused by tread separation on some versions of the Firestone Wilderness tires, as well as its ATX and ATX II models. Most of the 6.5 million tires involved in an Aug. 9 recall are on Ford Motor Co. light trucks and sport/utility vehicles, such as its best-selling Explorer. Officials in Venezuela are also investigating whether the tires led to 46 deaths there.
If Ford can come back from that to become the number one selling car brand
and to develop a car like the GT40, then GM can do the same.
Lest we forget that Toyota just went through the stuck accelerator debacle and they are back to selling cars hand over fist, in a recession. Also, you may not remember, but Audi had problems with unexpected acceleration, too, in the 80's.
- In Canton, Ohio, a mother shifted the automatic transmission in her 1985 Audi 5000 from park to drive while waiting for her 6-year-old son to open the garage door. The car unexpectedly accelerated. The mother hit the brakes but was unable to stop the rapid acceleration. The car sped into her son, dragging him through the garage and fatally crushing him against the back wall.
- A Swedish woman in a 1983 Audi shifted from park to drive and the car suddenly accelerated into nearby pedestrians. Before the car could be stopped it had killed one person and injured another.
In 1989, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued their report on Audi’s “sudden unintended acceleration problem.” NHTA’s findings fully exonerated Audi and some other implicated foreign makers.”
The report concluded that the Audi’s pedal placement was different enough from American cars’ normal set-up (closer to each other) to cause some drivers to mistakenly press the gas instead of the brake.
Audi and many other manufacturers quickly added an automatic transmission interlock, making it impossible to shift into drive or reverse without a foot on the brake. This changed the industry standard and now all automatic vehicles sold in the US have this feature.
A flood of lawsuits and bad publicity were already consuming the German automaker.
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| Lexus GSf interior |
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| Audi Quattro Concept |
But, look at Audi now, quickly moving back into a controlling position in the luxury car market.
So, can Chevy bounce back? They most certainly can and will. Car makers have bounced back from far worse. Nobody has been killed by this defect. Dig?
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