[volkman10]

In one of the largest vehicle recalls in India, General Motors India today said it is recalling 1.14 lakh units of its multi-purpose vehicle Chevrolet Tavera, manufactured between 2005 and 2013, to address emissions and specification issues.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/21301913.cms

[JayPrashanth]

Link to News Section

Shortly, General Motors India will recall 114,000 units of the Chevrolet Tavera MUV. This recall applies to both BS3 and BS4 variants of the Tavera, and will cover the MUVs built between 2005 and 2013. While the BS3 version of the Tavera uses a 2.5 liter turbo diesel engine built by AVTEC Limited (a company owned by the C.K. Birla group), the BS4 model uses a 2 liter common rail, turbo diesel engine produced by International Cars and Motors Limited (ICML).



The recall will involve modifications to these engines, to resolve emissions performance and specification issues. Early last month, General Motors halted production of the diesel powered Sail hatchback and sedan, and the Tavera MUV, after a routine inspection by Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), a governmental certifying agency, found certain discrepancies. The Tavera BS3 model failed to meet emission norms while there were specification issues with the Tavera BS4 model.

Both issues are not safety related. General Motors, in its latest statement, states that it has found fixes to the various issues on the Tavera, and has completed engineering validation of the same. The American car maker is now said to be waiting for regulatory approval for re-starting production of the Tavera. After the regulatory approval, the car maker will also recall 114,000 units of the Tavera in order to fix the issues on the MUV.

The recall will be carried out by General Motors's 280 strong dealerships across India, free of cost to the customer. Meanwhile, General Motors is yet to make an official statement regarding the status of the diesel engined versions of the Sail hatchback and sedan. Production of these cars were stopped last month on account of quality issues with the diesel engines. It remains to be seen whether GM India also issues a recall for the Sail Diesel twins as a few thousand units of these cars have already been sold in India. Currently, production of the Sail Diesel twins stands suspended.

[ramzsys]

By BS3 version they mean the ISUZU 4JA1 engine. I don't know what sort of modification is needed in that.

[arvind71181]

Wouldn't that almost be equal to the count of Taveras they have sold in the country during the specified time period?

[Deep Blue]

Wow.They are recalling vehicles produced back in 2005. Is this a first? Most places, vehicles would have completed their lifecycles in 8yrs I suppose.

[tanwaramit]

Saw to post this, but seeing that this news is already up.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Autos/...1-1097610.aspx

2005-2013 models, many models would have changed quite a few hands in between and may well be quite in bad shape.

However, good of them to take this step.

[drchernish]

Have received a call from my Chevy dealer to check steering issue for my cruze tomorrow .Thats a voluntary recall for all cruzes! Anybody else received a similar call?

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by drchernish

Have received a call from my Chevy dealer to check steering issue for my cruze tomorrow .Thats a voluntary recall for all cruzes! Anybody else received a similar call?

Oh! Their whole stable seems to be under quality related problems or emissions issue.

What's with the steering issue your Cruze is facing? If you know or have got any information from the dealership, please elaborate for the benefit of others.

Cheers,
Anurag.

[drchernish]

My cruze is not facing any steering issues-they are just doing a blanket recall and replacing a part. Lately avery manufacturer is doing a recall. Maybe its in fashion !

[volkman10]

Road Ministry forms panel to look into GM's recall of Tavera.

A penel to probe for violation of emission norms and it will decide if any penal action would be taken against the company

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/21308909.cms

[girishglg]

A point to note is that though they have made the recall public, they have not been very transparent on the actual issue/s that plagued these vehicles.

Recalling vehicles since 2005 is actually a very unheard of incident and hope that they are actually saying the truth about just the emission and not something else that is potentially more dangerous that they might have discovered so late

A pity on such a large auto major who do not even have their own powertrain for the Tavera, borrowing it all along from various vendors which might have compromized on the quality.

One thing for sure GM has royally messed up in our market and only time will tell about the impact of this on the sales of their entire range of vehicles.

[VineetG]

From what i gather from various reports in the news, it seems that before the launch of the vehicles, GM sent different vehicles to ARAI/Natrip for certification than the ones they eventually sold, difference being in emission control components and weight of the vehicle. There was some fudging of data also related to emissions. In essence, GM was selling a different vehicle to customers that what was certified by ARIA/Natrip.

So all the time, more than 1 lakh Taveras running in total millions and millions of kms on our roads, were emitting more poison in the air than they were permitted to.
And this came to light during a surprise inspection.
Hence this talk of investigation and penalties by the government.
GM is doing this under immense pressure and possibilities of penalties than due to any genuine concern for the vehicle owners.
In US, they may have been staring billions of dollars in fines, while in India, i think they can get off relatively easily.

All the above are my speculations and may be proven wrong too.

[RSR]

Originally Posted by VineetG

And this came to light during a surprise inspection.
Hence this talk of investigation and penalties by the government.
GM is doing this under immense pressure and possibilities of penalties than due to any genuine concern for the vehicle owners.
In US, they may have been staring billions of dollars in fines, while in India, i think they can get off relatively easily.

All the above are my speculations and may be proven wrong too.

I believe you are spot on in your assessment of the situation!

This does not bode well for GM at all. They are doing everything possible to control the enormous damage this has caused. The recall of vehicles sold as far back as 2005 for an emissions issue (not safety) is enough proof of this.

Most of these Taveras must be operating as taxis/cabs or fleet vehicles. Such vehicles would have probably run a couple of lakh kilometres or more, or had their engines rebuilt, or would have even been scrapped by now. It would be very weird for an owner to take a 2005 Tavera cab that is about to be scrapped, or had its engine completely overhauled for the second time, back to the dealer to fix "a potential emissions issue"

The Tavera is a solid money spinner for GM India. This vehicle is basically an Isuzu Panther wearing Chevy's bow tie. It's a big hit with the taxi operators - it can seat 7-10 people, takes abuse well, running and maintenance costs are reasonable and can be fixed fairly easily. It's a Jap in disguise, after all.

I don't know how GM could get itself into such a horrible mess. It must be a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. An Isuzu Panther, built by GM and wearing the Chevy logo, it's BSIII engine made by Avtec/HM and its BSIV engine sourced from ICML/Sonalika.

Contrary to earlier reports, it now seems that both the BSIII and BSIV engined vehicles are being recalled, the former for an "emissions" related issue and the latter due to a "specifications" issue. Not many BSIV Taveras would have been sold and it should be easy to fix this. On the other hand, the "emissions issue" of the BSIII Tavera is definitely going to have some bad repercussions, but then again, this is India and they would probably get away with a token "official" fine.

The lack of transparency on the part of GM makes one very suspicious of the entire episode. What are they trying to cover up here? Surely, it must be much more than a batch of defective parts!

Again, there is no word from GM about the diesel engined variants of the Sail twins. I wonder what's happening on that front?

[DReddy]

ARAI does something called a COP(conformity of production) test every 6 months to one year for all models of every manufacturer. It can also be done by other testing authorities such as ICAT, NATRIP etc.

The purpose of this test is to ensure that the car remains true to the specs initially declared by the manufacturer for type approval which is done before launch.

An official goes to the respective manufacturer's plant and randomly selects 3 cars from the production line. These are then sent to the testing authority for the COP test.

Disclaimer: Readers are requested to use their discretion in arriving at conclusions. I have only stated what I know from my limited knowledge.

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by JayPrashanth

. After the regulatory approval, the car maker will also recall 114,000 units of the Tavera in order to fix the issues on the MUV.

The recall will be carried out by General Motors's 280 strong dealerships across India, free of cost to the customer..

I don't think this is going to be practical. Recalling such a huge number of vehicles is unheard in India and I don't think there exists a process established for this. Cars which is currently with second or third owner never comes to service station for any repairs. Its all done by outside mechanics. Also what is the liability on GM if these cars goes unnoticed or untraceable? Will those cars continue to pollute more?
Say if the engine has undergone a repair work and its obvious that after major engine overhaul there is no process for checking emission norm and now if they are not able to rectify it, what will GM do? Will they offer new engine?
By this time even with Indian standards the first person of the company should be arrested for this criminal offense. Just because its India, every thing is taken for granted :(