Tavera recall: GM India asks owners to get vehicles fixed

New Delhi: After failing to elicit a positive response from owners over its recall of its multi-purpose vehicle Tavera announced in 2013, General Motors India has asked customers to get their vehicles repaired to address emission and specification issues.

At a time when air pollution has taken the centre-stage, with Delhi in particular grappling with the issue, General Motors India (GM India) issued a public notice asking the owners to get their vehicles to its dealerships.

"We hereby again request all the impacted Tavera owners that if they have not rectified the potential problem in their Tavera vehicles as yet, please take vehicles to the nearest dealership with prior appointment to carry out the repair," the company said. In 2013, the company had recalled 1.14 lakh units of Chevrolet Tavera, manufactured between 2005 and 2013, to address emission and specification issues.

Despite the company shooting off letters to the affected customers as well as the public notice given earlier, all the users did not report their vehicles to the dealerships for repair under the campaign, it said.

GM India said it has already sent individual letters offering details pertaining to the issue, vehicle identification/chassis number and other logistical aspects as per the record available with it and also through local dealers. The company, however, did not give details on how many vehicles have been repaired till now out of the total 1.14 lakh in question.

The recall of 1.14 lakh Tavera vehicles by General Motors was the biggest in India at that point. The record has been broken by Volkswagen this year, which is recalling 3.23 lakh vehicles in India after a government- ordered probe found the company using diesel engines equipped with a defeat device which helps cheat emission tests, as it had done in the US and other global markets. Growing levels of emission and pollution are posing serious risks, with the Supreme Court banning registration of SUVs and cars powered by diesel engines of 2,000 cc and above.

The Delhi government will start a fortnight-long odd-even programme from tomorrow to restrict the number of cars plying on the roads of the national capital in order to curb pollution.