- General Motors has issued a recall for over 217,000 vehicles with model years between 2018 and 2020 due to the potential for transmission failure.
- A leak in the transmission could cause the vehicle to eventually stop moving and even spark a fire.
- No known cases of accidents or injuries have been reported so far, but the recall will begin in mid-December.
2020 has thrown a lot of curveballs at us, and I don’t need to list them for you to know exactly what I’m talking about. Unfortunately, all that additional drama, stress, and anxiety is compounded by things that, in a normal year, we wouldn’t even have blinked at. Product recalls are one of those things, and General Motors just issued a pretty serious one.
The automotive manufacturer is recalling over 217,000 cars and SUVs sold in the United State and Canada because of a transmission oil leak issue that could cause a vehicle to break down and perhaps even catch fire. Yeah, it’s not good.
The recall affects vehicles with model years from 2018 to 2020 and covers a wide range of makes and models. Certain vehicles sold under the makes Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac are all included in the recall. The good news is that GM says that it doesn’t have any documented cases of the potential transmission issues leading to any accidents or injuries. Still, that doesn’t mean it can’t happen, and the company wants to make sure it can repair the faults before someone is affected by the issue.
As Autoblog reports, the cars that are impacted by the recall include the following:
- 2018 Chevrolet Malibu
- 2018-2019 Chevrolet Cruze
- 2018-2020 Chevrolet Equinox
- 2018-2020 Chevrolet Traverse
- 2019-2020 Chevrolet Blazer
- 2018-2019 Buick LaCrosse
- 2019-2020 Buick Encore
- 2019-2020 Buick Enclave
- 2018-2020 GMC Terrain
- 2019-2020 GMC Acadia
- 2019-2020 Cadillac XT4
- 2019-2020 Cadillac XT6
The recall will formally begin in December, and individuals who own the vehicles will be contacted to let them know that a recall has been issued. Repairs will be carried out by authorized dealers and repairs will reportedly including replacing bolts on the transmission that may be loose or completely missing.
As with all automotive recalls, the repairs will be carried out over a span of months. You can’t just expect 217,000 cars to flood dealership repair shops and be taken care of overnight. That means that, in the meantime, there will be people still driving these vehicles around.
I’m not saying you should stop driving your vehicle if it falls into one of the recall categories — that’s a decision that would have to be made by the manufacturer and transportation authorities — but if you do have one of these cars, maybe be a little bit more vigilant about how it’s acting. If you have an alternative mode of transportation available to you, such as another vehicle you can use in the meantime, it might not be a terrible idea to go that route while you wait for your vehicle’s transmission to get the attention it needs.
