GM recalling Chevy Sonic for faulty turn signals

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and General Motors have announced a recall of the 2013 Chevrolet Sonic over a concern that the turn signals may not function properly, possibly increasing the chances of an accident.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statement, 2013 Chevrolet Sonic sedans and hatchbacks built between May 29th 2012 and August 29th 2012 may have turn signals that do not function properly and making the situation worse – the Body Control Module (BCM) is not detecting this problem so no warning indicator in the driver information area is triggered. Should this happen, the driver may think that they are signaling while the exterior turn signals may not be telling other drivers where the 2013 Sonic is headed. Due to this problem, the Sonic fails to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 "Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment" so a recall is required to address the issue. In total, about 4,716 examples of the sporty new subcompact is affected by this recall.

The new turn signal recall for the 2013 Chevrolet Sonic is about as mild of a safety recall as exists but with a slightly higher chance of an accident when the Sonic driver is turning or changing lanes while leaving other drivers clueless as to their direction – there is a safety risk at hand. Luckily, this isn’t like a wheel falling off or a car accelerating uncontrollably so the type of risk is very different from other safety recalls but if the company is going to address an issue, owners should take them up on that offer.

GM plans to begin contacting owners on or around October 3rd, at which point they will be asked to bring their 2013 Chevrolet Sonic back to the nearest dealership where the BCM will be retuned along with the vehicle’s key fobs. This work will be performed free of charge and for more information, owners can contact the Chevrolet owner center at 1-866-694-6546 in reference to recall number 12209. Due to the simplicity of the fix for this recall, owners can expect that the service department should have them in and out in a reasonable hurry. Of course, this can vary depending on how busy the service department is but reflashing a BCM and a couple key fobs shouldn’t take more than a half hour.

This is the second recall for the 2013 Chevrolet Sonic in less than a month after the company recalled the sporty little subcompact in late August over a concern that the windshield washer fluid lines could become disconnected from the sprayer portion of the system (click here for more on that recall). Much like this new recall, there is a much lower safety threat posed than with many other recalls but with things that are so easy to fix, the low risk of an accident is enough to get the vehicles back and repair the simple problem.