General Motors (GM) issued an advisory for car dealerships to temporarily stop selling 2013 and 2014 models of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan.
The suspension came after the U.S. carmaker found a problem in the vehicles' airbags. Japanese automotive parts maker Takata, which supplied the faulty airbags, was reportedly involved in various recalls for different car companies including Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Ford and Mazda. The inflator produced by the car parts company contained a form of propellant that might induce an explosion under certain circumstances, the New York Times reported.
But this wasn't the problem identified with GM's cars. The company suspended its sales because of another issue - faulty assembly of the inflator.
"We are working diligently with the supplier of the defective part to identify specific vehicles affected and expect to resume deliveries by the end of this week, once those vehicles are identified," GM spokesperson Greg Martin told the New York Times.
Toyohiro Hishikawa, a spokesman for Takata based in Tokyo, stated that the company was unaware that GM suspended sales due to the inflators they supplied. Another GM spokesman described the problem as a "chemistry issue."
The affected model, the Cruze, is one of GM's top selling cars. Last month, GM sold 32,393 Cruze units in the United States alone.
While officials figure out details of the suspension, the vehicles in question will remain with the car dealers. The company has yet to decide on a plan of action for affected cars that have already been purchased.
GM has not recovered yet from its major recall issue related to the ignition switch of cars that were linked to the deaths of 13. The company received negative attention after confirming that they were aware of the problem for almost a decade yet failed to act on it immediately. The ignition problems may shutdown the engine unexpectedly or disable the airbags after a power loss. As a result, the company announced series of recalls and received a maximum fine of $35 million.
