MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO – General Motors Corp., revisiting a problem that brought millions of pickups back to the shop for tailgate repairs, said Friday it’s recalling an additional 900,000 trucks to replace faulty tailgate cables.

GM’s recall covers Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks from model years 1999 and 2000, with about 100,000 of the vehicles located outside the United States.

“If anyone is sitting or standing on the horizontal surface of the tailgate when both cables fractured, they could fall and be injured,” according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Alan Adler, spokesman for Detroit-based GM, said there have been 84 injuries resulting from the defect, with about 80 percent being minor scrapes and bruises. He didn’t elaborate on the extent of the other injuries but did say there have been no fatalities.

Dealers will replace the galvanized support cables with stainless-steel support cables at no charge, GM said.

In a similar move two years ago, the automaker recalled 4 million pickups to replace the cables. The recall involved 2000-2004 models and, in addition to the Sierra and Silverado, included the Chevrolet Avalanche and Cadillac Escalade.

There were 134 minor injuries related to the 2004 recall.

—

(c) 2006, MarketWatch.com Inc.

Visit MarketWatch on the Web at http://www.marketwatch.com

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

Copy the Story Link