Rental car delivered to owner of recalled GM car
General Motors has recalled nearly 30 million cars this year, the most recent just weeks ago.
A Centralia woman who owns one of those recalled cars feared for her life driving home every day. Thursday afternoon, Jodi Roberts received a rental car from Bob McCosh Chevrolet in Columbia while the recalled car is looked at.
Jodi Roberts told ABC 17 News every time she made it home at the end of the day, she felt it was a miracle. She said she stopped driving outside of her hometown of Centralia because of the safety concerns.
Roberts received two letters from GM in the last month notifying her of two safety recalls on her 2005 Chevrolet Malibu. One recall was for a transmission problem, where the wiring can snap without warning and cause the driver to lose control. The other for an issue with the brakes.
On Wednesday, she said, “I have a young son who also rides in the car with me when I pick him up from school,” Roberts said. “If I have no breaks and I have no control of the car, I could hit a child or a house or another car.”
So when her brakes began making a strange sound, she immediately called GM.
“They told me to take it down and have it diagnosed, which, if they already know that it’s being recalled, why do I have to have it tested?” Roberts said.
Concerned, she began to make calls to try to get the parts on her car replaced, but was told the parts aren’t available yet.
“I asked them about picking up my car and towing it and bringing me another car and was told that wasn’t an option,” Roberts said. “My son could be killed or I could be killed. Who are they to say when I can get my car fixed? There’s already a safety recall on it. It needs to be fixed now, not next month, not two months from now.”
Frustrated, Roberts said she called ABC 17 News.
“All I want is help,” she said. “I don’t know what else to do.”
ABC 17 News reached out to GM Wednesday to find out when the parts would be ready and if there were any other options for Roberts in the meantime.
ABC 17 News also reached out to Bob McCosh Chevrolet in Columbia on Wednesday, and received a call back Thursday afternoon, saying Roberts was delivered a rental car until her recall issue could be fixed.
When the first round of GM recalls came out, ABC 17 News talked with the Bob McCosh dealer and was told the dealership would do everything they could to supply drivers of recalled cars with rental cars until their cars could be fixed, although those rental cars were limited.
