This past June, General Motors issued a recall on approximately 88,000 of its popular GMC Terrain mid-size SUVs due to a major safety defect. The defect could cause the airbags to fail to deploy in the event of an accident, leading to significantly increased risk of serious injury or death.

The recall centers around a small part known as a sensing diagnostic module, which is what triggers the airbags to deploy during an accident, protecting the vehicle’s occupants. In the affected vehicles, the sensor fails to power down correctly when the vehicle is turned off. This causes the sensor to fail to turn on again properly when the vehicle is restarted, preventing it from working properly and deploying the airbags during a collision. A lack of working airbags significantly increases the risk of injury or death in an accident.

The good news is the recall doesn’t require any new parts to be installed in the vehicle, and dealers will simply install a software update on the car that re-programs the module to shut down correctly. The service is free of charge to affected vehicle owners.

General Motors should be reaching out to the affected vehicle owners with a recall notice soon, but notices don’t always reach who they need to. If you’re not sure whether or not your vehicle is affected, you can check your vehicle’s identification number (VIN) in the database on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website.

Your Rights as a Recall Victim

Vehicles are usually recalled for safety defects after several instances have occurred which have resulted in serious injury or death as a result of the defective part of system. Car manufacturers have a responsibility to thoroughly test and ensure that their vehicles are safe and fit for consumer use, however with so many systems and pieces of technology on board, recalls are becoming more and more common.

If your vehicle has been recalled for safety, your dealer is given a limited number of opportunities to fix the issue. If the same issue can’t be fixed after three attempts for the same issue, you may be able to have your vehicle declared a “lemon” under the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act. That number falls to two attempts if the repair is for a problem that could result in death or injury, such as the GM recall we discussed on this blog.

If you think you may have been sold a lemon, call the Los Angeles lemon law attorney at Norman Taylor & Associates today!