GM recalling 118K Colorado, Canyon pickups over missing hood latches

[ne_one]

GM recalling 118K Colorado, Canyon pickups over missing hood latches
Autoblog
December 20, 2012
by Steven J. Ewing

General Motors has announced a recall of 118,800 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks due to the possibility of secondary hood latches not being installed at the time of manufacture. The affected vehicles are from the 2010, 2011 and 2012 model years, all of which were built between November 9, 2009 and August 28, 2012.

According to the official National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report, these trucks fail to "comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 113, 'Hood Latch System.' The hood may be missing the secondary hood latch." In other words, owners of these trucks could find their vehicles' hoods opening unexpectedly while driving.

Full article at link.

[Al465]

Did I read correctly, a missing hood latch? How could this happen? GM should fire the person responsible for this mishap. GM can not afford such bad publicity.

[BlackGTP]

Wow - I'd almost think GM hired the Chrysler guys that were fired for drinking on the job (and were subsequently rehired a month or two ago).

I'm not in manufacturing, how does a part like this get forgotten? Obviously human error. But I'd think there would be numerous levels to note a part is missing - quality control, the guy responsible for installing (assuming it was a human - hey, why do I have these leftover parts?), the folks that order inventory (hey, why isn't the inventory for this part ever changing)?, the part maker (hey, why did GM stop ordering this part?), accounting (hey, why aren't we being billed for this anymore?).

[1999 White C5 Coupe]

Did I read correctly, a missing hood latch? How could this happen? GM should fire the person responsible for this mishap. GM can not afford such bad publicity.

The missing hood latch (old technology - no computer reprogram here....) could only be missing for three model years. So much for quality control at that plant.

[swagled]

Colorados were built at the old Shreveport plant which was owned by Liquidation Motors the last 3 years. I'm sure oversight was not as tight as it had been prior to bankruptcy.

There was discussion over at ColoradoFans.com that most of the assembly workers still on the line in 2012 were new employees, and that quality of assembly was dropping. Experienced people were transferring to GM owned plants.

[skylark68]

My neighbor just traded in his '10 Z71 Colorado on a '12 Silverado LT extended cab. Got a really good deal too. Not sure how much he was given for the Colorado though. Guess he won't have to mess with the recall.

[bobojay]

Colorados were built at the old Shreveport plant which was owned by Liquidation Motors the last 3 years. I'm sure oversight was not as tight as it had been prior to bankruptcy.

There was discussion over at ColoradoFans.com that most of the assembly workers still on the line in 2012 were new employees, and that quality of assembly was dropping. Experienced people were transferring to GM owned plants.

Wouldn't surprise me a bit about the line workers being all new. I know I wouldn't have stayed. The management was probably from the "low rung" also, and they ran the plant with the very minimum of people.

They technically weren't working for GM any more

[swagled]

Keep in mind, the recall does not mean every truck assembled since 2009 has the problem. Just that they should be inspected. There were probably not "enough" missing hood latches ordered to alert quality control.

[ne_one]

There were probably not "enough" missing hood latches ordered to alert quality control.

But evidently enough to force a recall.

It's one thing for a part to be defective or not installed properly but a missing component is inexcusable. It's convenient to blame inexperienced workers but QA should really catch this sort of thing.

You know when you have a lot of extra latches and brake pads kicking around that something is wrong.

[Octane]

' The hood may be missing the secondary hood latch." In other words, owners of these trucks could find their vehicles' hoods opening unexpectedly while driving.

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This part of the statement would suggest that there is an undisclosed problem with the primary hood latch.
The hood would open unexpectedly only if ....... the primary hood latch were to fail, and the secondary latch was not present.
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[prowlerjc]

Wouldn't it be obvious the first time you opened the hood?

[the_smurf2008]

Whaaaa..huh???? Really????

It's the secondary latch but wow....

[the_smurf2008]

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This part of the statement would suggest that there is an undisclosed problem with the primary hood latch.
The hood would open unexpectedly only if ....... the primary hood latch were to fail, and the secondary latch was not present.
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HMMM good point

[swagled]

Next step: NHTSA will mandate a separate lock and key than the ignition and trunk, just for opening the hood. You know .. in case the hood latch fails and the manufacturer doesn't install a secondary ...

[bone]

GM cannot afford difficult news at this time especially when market share is falling. There are serious inventory issues on too many models presently. I want GM to be successful;however, I don't see much to encourage me at this point in time. The only vehicle that is getting positive press right now is the ATS. The XTS gets some decent reviews but it is not selling nearly as well as the DTS. The initial reviews of the 2014 pickups have been less than positive, Camaro sales are falling behind the Mustang, the Malibu is close to a total disaster, etc. etc.