GM and Chrysler are recalling about 29,000 cars due to safety concerns.
The cars may experience problems that could cause a fire or unexpectedly deactivate engine braking.
Chrysler has issued a recall for about 2,500 Dodge Challengers. The cars may experience a short circuit that could cause a fire. Chrysler announced that the short-circuit could cause overheat to the wire harness. This malfunction may affect as many as 4,459 vehicles, but about 1,900 are still at dealerships.
Luckily, the scope of the recall is small. Chrysler said that the only cars affected were 2013 V-6 Dodge Challengers built in the eight weeks prior to Jan. 24, 2013. Challenger owners with this specific car will be notified by Dodge by telephone or mail. They should, however, stop driving their cars and contact their dealers. Owners should also avoid parking their cars in or close to a structure in case of a fire, reports ABC News.
GM is also recalling 26,500 2013 Buick LaCrosse sedans and Cadillac SRX, Autoweek reports. The recall is due to a fault in the vehicles' Driver Shift Control. The function allows the driver to shift the automatic gearbox as on a manual transmission. A software fault in the affected cars can cause the car to switch back to the automatic transmission mode unexpectedly. This unexpected switch also gets rid of any transmission-related engine braking, which could cause the driver to crash.
The fault affects 1,861 of the Buicks that were built from May 29, 2012 to Feb. 18, 2013 and 24,752 Cadillacs built from April 25, 2012 to March 6, 2013. GM stated that the recall will begin March 28. The company will notify owners, whose transmission controls will be reprogrammed for free.
