General Motors recalls another 3M vehicles

General Motors is recalling 3.16 million more of its cars after facing harsh criticism from lawmakers for its slow response to prior problems.

The company said Monday that the new recalls involved cars that were made between 2000 and 2014 that had ignition switches that were found to involuntarily move out of the “run” position.

GM executives came under fire from both parties for not revealing until earlier this year that more than 2 million of its older model cars had a different ignition flaw that caused them to abruptly shut off or have their airbags become disabled if keys were too heavy.

{mosads}The company was accused of purposely delaying the recall to avoid having to pay for repairs.

GM said Monday that its newest recall was the result of an intensive review of ignition switches that was undertaken after the earlier issues were discovered.

“The safety recall follows a review of ignition issues following the recall in February of 2.6 million Chevrolet Cobalts and other small cars,” the company said in a statement. “GM is aware of eight crashes and six injuries related to this recall.”

The models that are affected by the latest GM recalls are the model year 2005-2009 Buick Lacrosse; 2006-2014 Chevrolet Impala; 2000–2005 Cadillac Deville; 2004–2011 Cadillac DTS; 2006–2011 Buick Lucerne; 2004–2005 Buick Regal LS & GS and the 2006–2008.

GM said it will “rework or replace the ignition keys” on the more than 3 million impacted vehicles at a cost of about $300 million. The company had previously announced that the cost of its recalls in the second quarter in 2014 was about $400 million.

“The use of a key with a hole, rather than a slotted key, addresses the concern of unintended key rotation due to a jarring road event, such as striking a pothole or crossing railroad tracks,” GM said Monday of the newly-announced repairs.

“Only one of the models included in the U.S. recall of 3,160,725 cars is still in production – the previous generation Chevrolet Impala, which is sold to daily rental fleets as the Impala Limited,” the company continued. “The total North America population – U.S., Canada, Mexico and exports — is 3,360,555.”