Holden stops Colorado 7 deliveries

GM Holden has ceased customer deliveries of its Colorado 7 while it rectifies a seatbelt problem, but is yet to do the same for its Colorado ute, deliveries of which have been stopped in the US due to a pending safety recall to fix airbags.

Both Colorado safety issues are under investigation by Holden, which told motoring.com.au the utility's "airbag issue does not, at this stage, affect us but [an] investigation [is] ongoing".

General Motors last week told its North American dealers to halt deliveries of the new 2015 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pick-up twins because of a pending safety recall to fix an airbag defect, just two weeks after the high-profile US launch of the new GM utes.

According to Automotive News, GM told US dealers last Thursday that it had notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of an “upcoming safety and noncompliance recall” to fix the problem, which it said involved driver-side airbag connections that “were wired incorrectly during the manufacturing process".

“This condition will cause the driver-side airbags to not function as designed and may adversely affect the crash performance of the driver-side airbags,” said the GM notice.

Dealers will be instructed to reprogram the airbag module with new software, which GM said will be available within days.

First shipments of GM's new Colorado and Canyon pick-ups, which are produced at GM’s Wentzville plant in Missouri, began on September, and it's unclear how many been delivered to US dealers since then.

The Colorado sold in Australia by Holden is produced in Thailand and was released in June 2012, since which time more than 42,000 examples have been sold here. 

The separate seat belt issue that affects Holden's mechanically similar Colorado 7 large SUV, which is built in the same Thai factory for Australia, could affect up to 4174 of the seven-seat vehicles sold here since November 2012.

“We are aware of an issue that may affect certain Holden Colorado 7 vehicles in relation to the third-row seat belts," said GM Holden's Senior Manager of Corporate Communications.

"We are working closely with GM Thailand to assess the issue and if there is any impact on vehicles sold in Australia.

"There have been no reports of this condition in Australia, however, while the investigation takes place we have initiated a stop delivery on Holden Colorado 7 vehicles.

"If a vehicle is affected, the issue will be immediately obvious to the passenger sitting in the third row as they will not be able to fasten the seat belt.

"Safety is our first priority and we will contact our Holden customers directly regarding relevant information on this matter if any action is required.”

Although a stop-delivery order is yet to be made by Holden for the Colorado, which may or may not be affected by the ute's imminent airbag-related recall in the US, industry observers say the move is symptomatic of GM’s new approach to potential safety issues.

GM executives have vowed to be more diligent with potential safety problems earlier in the launch of new vehicles, following this year's recall of 2.6 million cars for faulty ignition switches, which have now been linked to 23 deaths.

Proving correct CEO Mary Barra, who said she expected the new approach will result in a greater number of recalls, GM has now recalled 71 safety recalls this year – many of them involving just a few hundred vehicles, including unsold vehicles – totaling more than 30 million vehicles.

Separately last week, GM also recalled 524,384 vehicles globally, including the Cadillac SRX and Saab 9-4X SUVs (neither of which are sold in Australia), and the Chevrolet Spark, which is also imported from Korea to Australia, where it's sold as the Holden Barina Spark.

Holden says there is so far no impact on vehicles sold in Australia, where about 9000 Barina Sparks have found homes since October 2010.

However 89,294 examples of the MY2013-15 Chevrolet Spark have been recalled in the US because of the potential for corrosion to cause the secondary bonnet latch striker to stick in the open position. GM said that if the primary latch is not engaged, the bonnet could open unexpectedly.

GM said an investigation included the failure of the suspect secondary bonnet latch in a 10-year component level corrosion test in November 2013. GM told the NHTSA that by February 2014 it had determined the anticorrosion coating was deficient and had began applying a different coating in late July.

The company said it was not aware of any crashes, injuries or deaths related to the issue, but in documents filed with NHTSA it cited two cases in the UK and one in Denmark in which bonnets opened while the vehicles were being driven.