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Despite Recall, General Motors Kept Selling Camaro Gen 5 Flip Key Fobs

As yours truly reported in June 2014, every Camaro Gen 5 was recalled over the possibility of bumping the key fob with the driver’s knee. This would inadvertently turn the car off, translating to no power brakes and no airbags. To remedy the issue, the flip-out design has been changed by service technicians for a traditional key attached to the fob with a ring.
Camaro Gen 5 flip key 27 photos
Photo: Amazon.ca
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All told, the campaign involved an estimated 464,712 examples of the breed from the 2010 to 2014 model years in the United States. Adding Canada, Mexico, and other exports to the count, the population swells to 511,528 units ranging from the V6 to the Z/28. As if that wasn’t a mess in its own right, General Motors has announced the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the flip key “may have been sold as a replacement for 2010 through 2015 model year Chevrolet Camaro vehicles.”

Safety recall N192223230 is more or less a repeat of the campaign from 2014. When replacements will be available, the dealers are to switch the key to a flat blade design at no cost to the owner. In the meantime, the defective key fob has been finally removed from the automaker’s online parts catalog. No fewer than 10,740 vehicles are expected at dealers based on sales and service records of flip-type replacement keys.

The keys in question were produced from January 15th, 2009 through May 2nd, 2019. “GM dealers may have inadvertently sold these flip key/RKE transmitter assemblies” according to a document filed with the NHTSA, but then again, why would you continue doing that following the 2014 recall? This sounds like another day at the office for General Motors, an automaker who already made a hash out of the ignition switch recall.

Does it come as a surprise that General Motors kept selling these keys for five years after the original callback? An unintended error is one thing, but the biggest of the Big Three in Detroit keeps proving that its corporate culture includes indifference to safety risks.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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