Despite the fact that the massive General Motors recall has been related to 13 deaths, many owners may not take their vehicles in for repairs.
The 2.6 million-vehicle recall involving faulty ignition switches is intended to prevent any more deaths or accidents, but hundreds of thousands of owners likely won't follow through on it, NBC News reported.
"Many [owners] unfortunately won't ever have these recall notices taken care of," Larry Gamache, communications director at Carfax, told NBC News.
The faulty ignition switches can cause the vehicles to turn off even while in motion, simultaneously disabling the airbags.
Even though the problem is extremely dangerous, many owners may end up ignoring the recall, especially if they have an older vehicle. Many of the recalled GM models, which include the 2005-07 Chevrolet Cobalt, are older cars that have been resold once or twice already.
GM has been contacting owners of the recalled models through mail, sending notices in clearly marked envelopes, NBC News reported. But they may ignore the alert because the vehicle is older or for another reason.
"Despite hearing the news that their vehicle could be affected by a recall, or even receiving an actual recall notice, many consumers don't know what to do, do not have the time to get it taken care of, or may not feel like it is as important as it really is," Gamache told NBC News.
GM will start the recall this week and expects the process to be completed by the late fall. As of last week, the carmaker only had 2 percent of the needed replacement parts ready.
The company has said in a filing 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.
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