As General Motors officials testify for a federal investigation into 13 deaths in company vehicles, the automaker may have another problem to deal with: too few ignition switches, the problematic part related to a 2.6 million-vehicle recall.
Only about 2 percent of the ignition switches needed to fix the recalled small cars will be ready and at the dealership next week, The Detroit News reported.
The company said in a filing this week that 47,000 replacement components will be in the first shipment. If not enough parts are available, dealerships could be filled with customers whose cars can't be fixed yet.
The massive recall, which was recently expanded from around 1.5 million to close to 2.6 million vehicles, includes the 2005-07 Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5; 2003-07 Saturn Ion; 2006-07 Chevrolet HHR; 2005-06 Pontiac Pursuit in Canada; 2006-07 Pontiac Solstice and 2007 Saturn Sky; 2008-10 Pontiac Solstice and G5; 2008-10 Saturn Sky; 2008-10 Chevrolet Cobalt; and 2008-11 Chevrolet HHR.
GM is looking to have at least a million parts available by the end of August and to complete the recall by the late fall, The Detroit News reported.
In her testimony this week before Congress, GM CEO Mary Barra said the carmaker is working with the supplier Delphi, which has two assembly lines producing the necessary switches. GM has additionally requested a third assembly line for the part, Barra said.
The problematic ignition switches turned off in some vehicles while the cars were still in motion, disabling the air bags at the same time.
Some GM dealers have said the company isn't staying in contact with them about when the switches will arrive or how many parts will be supplied.
"We're in the dark just like everyone else," Reichard Mann, service manager at Greenwood Chevrolet near Youngstown, Ohio, told The Detroit News.
According to GM spokesman Jim Cain, the company will prioritize based on which markets had the greatest number of recalled vehicles and ship parts to them first.
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