GM adds 700,000 Canadian cars to ignition switch recall

General Motors' safety crisis worsened on Monday when the automaker added 8.2 million cars, including 700,000 in Canada, to its huge list of vehicles recalled over faulty ignition switches.

The latest recalls involve mainly older midsize cars and bring GM's total number of recalls this year to over 28 million.

The vehicles affected:

• Chevrolet Malibu, 1997-2005.
• Oldsmobile Intrigue, 1998-2002.
• Oldsmobile Alero, 1999-2004.
• Pontiac Grand Am, 1999-2005.
• Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo, 2000-05.
• Pontiac Grand Prix, 2004-08.
• Cadillac CTS, 2003-14.

Chevrolet called the fault “unintended ignition key rotation” and said it was aware of three deaths, eight injuries and seven crashes involving the vehicles recalled.

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The company said it has no conclusive evidence that faulty switches caused the crashes.

CEO Mary Barra said the recalls stem from GM’s extensive safety review, which uncovered dozens of unreported faults and has led to 48 recalls this year.

“We have worked aggressively to identify and address the major outstanding issues that could impact the safety of our customers,” Barra said in a statement. “If any other issues come to our attention, we will act appropriately and without hesitation.”

The Detroit company also said it plans to take a $1.2-billion US charge in the second quarter for recall-related expenses. Added to a $1.3-billion US charge in the first quarter, that brings total recall expenses for the year to $2.5 billion.

GM is urging people to remove all other keys from their ignition key rings until the recalled cars can be repaired.

It also announced four other recalls Monday covering more than 200,000 additional vehicles in North America, 24,000 of them in Canada. Most are to fix an electrical short in the driver's door that could disable the power locks and windows and even cause overheating.