False information on recall websites adds to GM’s woes

The year is going badly for General Motors with its 29 million vehicles recall over ignition switch issues alone, (among others) in the last 8 months alone.

However, according to a new report from Businessweek vehicle recalls might not be the worst of the auto maker's problems.

After the GM recalls started, consumers had been visiting the GM website to look up information about their vehicles. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), however, GM recall information had been falsified, with consumers finding no GM recall information for their vehicle.

According to GM representative Greg Martin, GM was fixing its recall information and that changes were coming to the website: He added, GM was aware of NHTSA's inquiry on the vehicle identification number (VIN) look-up issue. He added, the company was making the necessary changes to its website.

Starting 20 August, all vehicle manufacturers would need to provide websites that allowed consumers to look up their VINs and recall information.

As for the GM recall info problem, the NHTSA said the problems had been fixed as of Friday at 5:30PM – which meant that consumers should now be free to find the correct information.

The website has caused much embarrassment to GM as whenever customers tried to check whether a recall had been issued for their vehicle through their vehicle identification number (VIN), the site told them their vehicle was not being recalled if the repair parts were not in. This also applied to cars that were, in fact, part of an active recall.

A GM spokesman said the company was aware of the glitch and was actively working to resolve the issue.

The glitch came to light at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which recently brought out new guidelines that required all automakers to provide a free online tool that allowed owners to search for the vehicles.

Meanwhile, a fund for victims of the defective ignition switches started accepting claims Friday. According to The New York Times, less than 10 claims had been filed as of Friday evening, but GM expected the number to rise dramatically over the next few weeks.

According to GM estimates, it would pay out $400 million in victim compensation. The company had so far, this year, recalled nearly 29 million vehicles in North America.