GM announces further recall of 312,000 vehicles worldwide

Even as General Motors continues to grapple with the defective ignitions issue with its cars, the company yesterday recalled over 312,000 vehicles worldwide, bringing its total recalls this year above 29 million cars, Reuters reported.

Most of the cars recalled were Saturn Vues from the 2002-04 model years, over the issue of vehicles keeping running even with the removal of ignition keys. According to the car maker, it was aware of two crashes and one injury potentially from the issue.

GM's ignition-related problems had caused much trouble, and in February the automaker began to recall 2.6 million Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other small cars with defective ignition switches, after its failure for over a decade to disclose to the public the switches' deadly flaws, which could suddenly cut engine power and disable air bags.

The ignition issue had forced GM to recall around 16.5 million cars worldwide this year.

According to commentators, the Vue recall would likely see the ignition cylinder and key set replaced.

Also yesterday, the automaker said it was recalling over 97,000 cars for a variety of other flaws, including problems with seatbelts, door latches, lighting, brakes and bolts that might not be tightened to specification.

Alan Adler, a GM spokesman, said in the case of loose bolts that affected the 2014 Chevrolet Spark, people should not drive the cars until they were repaired. GM would pay for towing or flatbed transportation, he said.

Among the other cars recalled yesterday were over 2,000 Chevrolet Aveos and Pontiac G3s, for a defect that could cause the brakes to fail - a flaw that also affected the Hyundai Genesis, Bloomberg reported.

With the latest recall, GM's total number of recalls rose to 66, covering over 29 million cars and trucks. That beats the company's old full-year record and pushing the total number for the industry this year to over 40 million, also an annual record.

Meanwhile, GM was conducting a companywide safety review after a bungled recall of 2.6 million small cars with defective ignition switches.