Holden says Commodore not affected by US recall of Chevrolet Camaro

HOLDEN has narrowly avoided a massive car recall with local bosses saying an issue with the Chevrolet Camaro in the US isn’t replicated in the Commodore.

HOLDEN has narrowly avoided what could have been Australia’s largest automotive recall.

More than 500,000 Chevrolet Camaros are being recalled in North America because the ignition switch can be bumped by the driver’s knee, which switches off the engine and can disable the airbags.

The Chevrolet Camaro is based on the homegrown Holden Commodore VE model introduced in July 2006, and uses the same key and ignition system.

The updated Holden Commodore VF model introduced in May 2013 also uses the same ignition system.

But Holden says there is no need to recall the 432,000 Commodore sedans, wagons and utes built since July 2006 because local testing found there was not a problem.

Holden spokesman George Svigos told News Corp Australia the company reviewed the Commodore ignition system once it became aware of the issue in the Camaro.

“In light of this, Holden engineers conducted a review of the (VE and VF) Commodore, which is based on the same architecture, and can confirm that it is not impacted by this recall,” said Mr Svigos.

Good to go ... Holden says they’ve tested for problems in the Commodore but says the issue affecting the Camaro isn’t replicated here.

General Motors says the Camaro ignition fault is not the same as the recall of 2.6 million cars linked to 13 deaths in older model Chevrolet vehicles.

General Motors said that, in the Camaro, a driver’s knee can “bump the key fob and knock the ignition switch out of the ‘run’ position”, which cuts power the engine and can disable the airbags.

General Motors says it knows of three crashes involving the Camaro, resulting in four minor injuries, that “may have been caused” by the ignition being disabled.

The latest Camaro campaign is the 38th recall for General Motors in North America so far this year, affecting 16.5 million vehicles.

Ignition problems ... GM has recalled more than 500,000 Chevrolet Camaros in the US. Picture: Stan Honda

Last month, Holden recalled 42,000 Commodores — almost every one since the new model went on sale in May last year — over a potential fault with the front seatbelts.

Holden said the seatbelt pre-tensioner module can make contact with the seatbelt buckle assembly under the seat, causing an electrical short that can disable the seatbelt retractor mechanism in a crash.

Pre-tensioners are designed to take up the seatbelt’s slack milliseconds before an airbag deploys, giving the driver and front passenger the best chance of survival in a serious crash.

It was the first recall for the new generation Commodore since it was launched 12 months ago.

The previous record for a recall in Australia was set by Toyota when it called back 300,000 vehicles in October 2012.

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling