BackGM India halts sale of Tavera, Sail models over quality issues
The move may trigger a product recall of all diesel models of the Sail and U-VA produced over a certain period
PremiumNew Delhi: General Motors India Pvt. Ltd has asked its dealers to stop selling the diesel variants of its newly launched Sail sedan and the Sail U-VA hatchback, suspecting problems with the 1.3 litre diesel engine used in these cars, according to two dealers.
The company has also asked dealers to stop sales of the BS III variant of its Tavera model, although the multi-purpose vehicle hasn’t faced problems, the dealers said, speaking on condition of anonymity. BS III is an emission standard.
GM India did not say if a recall of the cars was likely.
P. Balendran, vice-president at the company, only said, “We will come back to you with an update after thorough investigation in the coming days."
GM India launched the Sail U-VA hatchback in November and the sedan version in February.
The hatchback competes with Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s Swift and Hyundai Motor India Ltd’s i20, and the sedan with Maruti’s Dzire, Hyundai’s Verna and Volkswagen India Pvt. Ltd’s Vento.
GM India’s other multi-purpose vehicle, Enjoy, too has not faced any problem although it uses the same engine, said the second dealer mentioned earlier.
Ever since the auto industry in India adopted the recall policy, there have been as many as seven recalls from companies including Renault India Pvt. Ltd, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd, Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd and Ford India Pvt. Ltd. At least 150,000 cars and 11,500 bikes have been recalled since July last year, the Economic Times newspaper reported on 31 May.
Sugato Sen, deputy director general, Siam, hailed auto firms’ decisions to proactively announce auto recall.
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