Posted on 04/11/2011 11:18:31 AM PDT by Beaten Valve
Imagine turning your cars steering wheel, or giving it a gentle tug, and having it break away from the steering column. Now youre speeding along holding the suddenly useless wheel.
It sounds like a vision from a cartoon, or every drivers nightmare. And it happened to at least one driver of a 2011 Chevrolet Cruze compact car last month, and General Motors Corp. is recalling 2,100 of the cars as a result.
While the recall affects a relatively small number of vehicles, it is an unpleasant development for Chevrolet, which has been riding high on the success of its new small car. Chevrolet sold 50,205 Cruzes through the end of March. Thats well short of the 76,821 units Toyota sold of the Cruzes main rival, the Corolla, but it is ahead of the 37,379 Cobalts Chevy sold in the same period. The Cruze replaced the Cobalt and is supposed to be a departure from that uninspired model.
In documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the car maker said it traced the problem with that particular car to a case in which the wrong wheel was put in a car and replaced later in the assembly process with the correct one. But the new wheel wasnt attached properly, the car maker says.
When the wheel separated from the steering column, the driver was able to get the car to the side of the road safely, and the company says it has tested other cars from the production run and found no similar problems. General Motors says it believes this was an isolated incident.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
HA HA! Look for the union label.....
WTH, somebody run out of duct tape???
I have been in and worked in every auto big 3 auto plant in the US....the cruze is made at lordstown...i would never buy anything made in lordstown ( one of the worst labor forces in the big 3 )......
I had a GMC van in the 1990’s. Was riding down the road one day, hit a bump - and the half the dashboard fell to the floor. Just split, right down the middle basically. Ended up super gluing it back together and kept it for a few more years.
It was the last GM product I ever will purchase.
Maybe someday the Cruze will be a good as the Yugo or Trabant.
Of course he had just run off into the grass, and hit a bit of a hump in the terrain at about 140 mph while trying to reenter the track. The car launched a few feet in the air and either the initial impact or the landing snapped the steering column from its mounts.
It was pretty exciting to watch from outside the car, so I bet it was a real hoot for young Mr. Petrov.
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/04/11/russian-driver-proves-f1-cars-fly-short-distances/
That is a very funny video.
Per the Toyota.com recall info webpage: "Toyota is recalling approximately 1.13 million 2005-2008 Model Year Toyota Corolla and Corolla Matrix vehicles sold in the United States with the 1ZZ-FE engine and two-wheel drive."
GM, I'm shocked ... shocked I say!
If it fell off a Toyota it would be a cable new breaking story and on the front page of all the liberal newspapers.
Maybe someday the Cruze will be a good as the Yugo or Trabant.
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Ah YUGO
Swerve to miss a baby duck
Crushed by a truck
tks Paul Shanklin via R Limbaugh
All it needs is the air horn playing “Dixie.”
}:-)4
No Cruze Control?
Like ‘em or not, that is a cute daddy/daughter moment!
Their PR firm will claim it’s a new innovation.
I had the same thing happen in a Honda Civic in the late 70’s.
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