National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stated it was investigating if General Motors should recall another 1.7 million sport utility vehicles because of an issue with windshield wiper failures.
GM, the largest U.S. automaker, had earlier recalled 367,800 2013 GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox SUVs in the United States in August 2016 to address the concern.
But after getting 249 complaints since then about same concerns in vehicles from five other model years, the federal agency stated it was looking into whether the recall should be increased to include a another 1.7 million vehicles from the 2010-2016 model years in the United States.
No accidents or injuries associated with the issue have been reported, GM said. GM said it was cooperating with the NHTSA review.
The 2013 GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox SUVs have been recalled “because warranty data showed a higher-than-expected failure rate,” and the company continues to monitor field data on other model years of those vehicles, GM stated.
“We will work with NHTSA on an updated review of the data for the vehicles covered by the query,” GM added.
The recalls came after a GM Canada brand quality manager reported a possible safety concern relating to windshield wiper failures in Canada through GM’s “Speak Up For Safety,” program in late 2015, the automaker stated.
GM said data revealed significantly higher field incidents in parts of Canada with heavy road salt use, which resulted in a June 2016 recall of 141,407 2010-2017 GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox SUVs in Canada. During the following two months, a larger number of U.S. reports resulted a U.S. recall of the 2013 model vehicles, the company stated.
