US safety regulators close investigations without recalls into Ford, GM vehicles

US safety regulators have closed investigations into about 500,000 Ford Motor Co and about 100,000 General Motors Co vehicles without calling for recalls, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said yesterday, Reuters reported.

The Ford vehicles involved were 2004 to 2007 model year Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Mercury Marauder vehicles, which were under investigation due to possible rusting of heat shield and dislodging causing jamming of the steering.

According to the NHTSA the incidents occurred rarely and six of the 10 reported complaints to the agency came from a single police department, which since, correction of its problem in 2011 did not report further incidents.

The GM issue involved model year 2014 Chevrolet Impala sedans in which the federal regulator received two complaints of unintended autonomous braking resulting in rear-end collisions.

The Impalas were rental cars and according to GM investigators the drivers in both incidents accidentally activated an electric park brake system. There was no evidence of problems with the autonomous braking systems.

According to the NHTSA for each of the moves, the closing of this investigation did not constitute a finding by NHTSA that a safety-related defect did not exist.

Meanwhile, wautoworldnews.com reported that GM did find an issue with the parking brake that could lock the brakes after a car was started. The company recalled nearly 133,000 cars, including the Impala to fix the issue.

The news came a couple of days after Arizona said it was suing GM over claims did not disclose safety defects. According to The New York Times, the state was looking for an estimated $3 billion from GM.

According to Arizona attorney general Tom Horne, civil penalties could reach up to $100, 000 per violation Reuters reported.