General Motors is now offering bonuses and other special incentives to try speeding up the repairs on millions of vehicles recalled for defective ignition-switches.
The program, called the Ignition Switch Recall Completion Initiative, was announced to U.S. dealers on June 13 and will run through July 7, according to GM Spokeswoman Ryndee S. Carney.
Incentives include a $250 credit at an online gift shop for service and parts managers at dealerships that install 90 percent of the ignition-switch replacement parts sent to them no later than Jul 7.
Approximately $4,000 in incentive credits to be split between parts and service managers at a random selection of 50 qualifying dealerships, and $10,000 to be shared by parts and service managers at one dealership selected at random.
"We are taking this action because we want to encourage dealers to continue to follow up with customers and do everything possible to get vehicles that are part of the ignition recall repaired as fast as possible," said Carney.
GM has been criticized by people all over the world, including the U.S. Congress and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for delays in handling the recall of millions of vehicles with defective ignition switches.
The switches can turn off a vehicle's engine while it is being driven, thus disabling the airbags if a crash occurs.
"Given that the ignition switch was in very limited production for several years, GM's supplier, Delphi, increased production, pulled machinery out of storage, and found new suppliers for some of the part components," said Jeff Boyer, vice president of GM Global Safety, on GM's FastLane back in mid-May. "Parts production is running seven days a week in multi-shift operations. We are buying new machinery and equipment to make parts quickly."
The automaker is also planning on sending emails to owners who have not started the process of scheduling repairs for their recalls vehicles yet.
GM started sending letters to owners of all affected vehicles earlier this year. It has continued to do so as more vehicles get added to the list.
As of June 19, GM says that 236,437 of the recalled cars have been repaired.
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