Post GM recall: How heavy is your key chain?
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Post GM recall: How heavy is your key chain?
General Motors has announced yet another recall, this time for 3.4 million vehicles with a defect in the cars’ ignition switches. According to the company, the keys can come out of postion if they carry too much weight.
The seemingly small defect could have deadly consequences for affected drivers. A statement from GM said the ignition switches could switch out of the “run” position if the key has excess weight and the car “experiences some jarring event,” like hitting a pothole. In that circumstance, the vehicle’s engine would shut off, potentially disabling power steering and causing drivers to lose control. To top it all off, the defect could also disable the vehicle’s airbags.
GM says it will fix the issue, which covers seven models from years ranging between 2000 and 2014, by issuing new keys that are resistent to the problem.
Car Talk has addressed this problem. So has the urban legend-debunking site snopes.com.
But really, how many car keys are too many? Do you have some unsusually large or heavy keyrings of your own? Maybe you make up for your lack of a key collection with some creative fobs?
Show us or tell us about your keychain by tweeting a pic to @Marketplace or commenting below.
Here are some of the responses we recieved on Twitter:
And a for those of you who sent in responses by email:
From listener Yoichi Hariguchi: I drive Nissan LEAF which does NOT have an ignition. All it needs is the presence of the smart key (in the picture) inside the car.
From listener Chakman Yeung: Normally, my car key (26 grams) is attached to the key ring. I figured I’d separate out how much additional weight is on my key ring.
Thanks for all your responses!
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