Posted by Mark Williams | October 3, 2014

GM is stopping all shipments and deliveries of the 2015 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickups due to a pending investigation about a faulty airbag sensor.

According to Automotive News, a note was sent to dealerships notifying them that an investigation with the National Highway Safety Administration has been opened regarding an airbag flaw that could cause problems with the normal deployment of the driver-side airbag. The fix is reported to be a simple software patch.

The new Colorados and Canyons went on sale just two weeks ago and fewer than 50 sales have been recorded. The stop-delivery announcement is the first glitch in the introduction of the newest members to the midsize pickup segment. GM CEO Mary Barra has stated that these types of small-volume safety recalls are likely to occur more often as GM's new recall and review policies catch issues like these earlier in the production process. So far this year GM has ordered 71 safety recalls affecting nearly 30 million vehicles.

GM has issued a statement, and it is as follows:

"General Motors has told dealers to halt deliveries of 2015 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickup trucks. These vehicles contain driver airbag connections that were wired incorrectly during the manufacturing process. This condition affects the vehicles’ two-stage airbag system by reversing the deployment sequence and disrupting the deployment timing of the driver airbag stages. This condition will cause the driver airbags to not function as designed.

"The majority of affected vehicles are being held at the assembly plant or are in transit or unsold at dealerships. GM is working to validate the correction for the condition. Once that service procedure is released to dealers, customer deliveries can resume. A small number of vehicles have been sold.

"Customers are being sent a FedEx letter and being contacted by phone to bring their vehicles to dealers as soon as possible. The repair will be done at no change and free loaner vehicles will be available. A safety recall will be conducted but population and other details are not known at this time. GM is aware of no crashes, injuries or fatalities related to this condition."

Cars.com image by Evan Sears