More than half a million Cars and SUVs are being recalled by General Motors (NYSE:GM) worldwide in two actions

Oct. 03, on Friday General Motors Co (NYSE:GM), the No 1 U.S. automobile makers, announced that due to potential safety issues related to the latch and loose parts they are recalling 524,384 cars and SUVs worldwide. GMs total number of recalls in the current year has reached an astonishing figure of 71 with the recall of Cadillac and Saab SUVs and small cars Chevrolet Spark. About 30 million automobiles have been affected by GM’s recalls with the highest figures of 2.6 million in one recall for faulty ignition switch, which is believed to have caused at least 23 deaths.

In its luxury class of vehicles, Cadillac SRX and Saab 9-4X SUVs, GM found out the possibility of loose joints and worn out threads in the rear link assembly. This defect is likely to increase the risk of accidents due to possible drifting of the vehicles when moving at high speeds. A total of 430,550 vehicles of these two models have been recalled since GM confessed that three crashes and two injuries due to these defects are in their knowledge. Dealers have been instructed to replace rear toe link assembly of SUVs as required. The models which are affected by this recall are SRX SUVs from years 2010 to 2015 and 9-4X SUVs from 2011 and 2012. Out of all the recalled SUVs, 290,107 are in the US and the rest are in Canada, Mexico and a few other countries.

Latest Chevrolet Spark cars numbering 93,834 have also been recalled by the Detroit based GM due to the possibility of secondary hood latch striker sticking in the open position because of the corrosion. This defect has increased the risk of inadvertent opening of car’s hood while driving. These cars have been manufactured in South Korea. GM claims that there are no accidents, deaths or even injuries reported to them due to the issue. However, there are two incidents in UK and one in Denmark in which the car hood opened during drive. These occurrences have been documented with U.S. safety regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

As per the documents with NHTSA, General Motors Co (NYSE:GM) carried out a detailed investigation to establish the root cause and found that a 10-year corrosion test at the component level had been failed by the suspected secondary hood latch in November 2013. GM notified that they had been able to confirm issues with anticorrosion coating on these latches in February, 2014 and as a result by late July they have started applying a different anticorrosion coating.

GM found out only 10 warranty cases claiming premature corrosion on secondary hood latches of Chevrolet Spark cars in the U.S. However, the recalled cars are of 2013 to 2015 model years. GM has put a restriction on their dealers in United States not to sell almost 13,000 cars held with them until they are fixed. Among the recalled cars, US is holding 89,294 and the rest are in Canada, Mexico and other countries. General Motors Co(NYSE:GM) will inform customers to get hood strikers replaced from the dealers once parts are made available.