Report: GM recalls may continue into summer
General Motors (GM) has already recalled more almost 13.8 million vehicles this year, but one analyst says it might not yet be finished.
Citing conversations with senior management at the troubled automaker, Barclays Capital analyst Brian Johnson thinks the recalls may continue for several months.
"Recall announcements may continue through mid-summer; however, despite the ongoing recalls, the pace of sales in the U.S. appears steady," Johnson wrote in in a research note about his meeting with GM executive vice president Mark Reuss and executive vice president and CFO Chuck Stevens.
Already for 2014, GM has recalled cars more cars than the 12.2 million vehicles it sold from 2009 through 2013, the Huffington Post notes. The 29 recalls stem from a range of problems, including faulty ignition-switches linked to the deaths of at least 13 people killed in crashes involving Chevrolet Cobalts and Saturn Ions.
The U.S. Transportation Department last week fined GM $35 million over its delayed recall of 2.6 million vehicles due to the ignition switches. The company also acceded to tighter government oversight.
Yet despite the potential for more recalls, Johnson believes the company's stock "has bottomed" and may rebound later this year.
The report comes shortly after GM issued recalls for millions of additional cars. On Tuesday, it issued four separate recalls that cover 2.4 million vehicles, including Chevrolet Malibus and Cadillac Escalades. That followed recalls of 2.7 million cars the previous week.
So what's behind Johnson's belief that the company has yet more recalls in store? In his meeting with the executives, he writes, he learned that GM has hired more than 30 additional investigators and is mining data from 10 different sources, including customer complaints and warranty replacement claims. Some of those recalls might come for already recalled vehicles.
"Given the data-mining is being conducted on an issue by issue, and not on a make and model year basis, it is possible that GM may issue further recalls for vehicles which have already been recalled," he noted.
GM said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch that it has "assigned more investigators to help us identify safer issues earlier and resolve them faster. In addition, they have been looking at some past field actions to evaluate whether they effectively addressed the issues. That work is continuing."