Heart of Holden - Holden Safety Recalls

10 November 2006 - re: Holden Safety Recall

Holden New Zealand has issued a safety recall for VE Commodore, WM Statesman and Caprice and HSV E-Series vehicles involving around 1,199 units.

The recall is in relation to a potential issue regarding rear seat belt buckles.

No customer cases have been reported but Holden is taking this action on advice from the relevant buckle supplier after the issue was detected during routine testing at the Holden Proving Ground in Melbourne.

The supplier has advised there is potential for the rear seat belt buckles' internal spring, which operates the internal latch plate, to be bent during manual assembly of the buckles. In the unlikely event that this occurs, the tongue latch plate may not fully engage which may allow the belt to unlatch.

The supplier has modified assembly to an automated process and acknowledged full responsibility for the rework activity.

The recall involves a total of 12,830 VE and WM vehicles (with tag numbers between L563891 and L859064) sold in three markets. They are:

Australia - 11,584 (including 452 HSV vehicles)
New Zealand - 1,199 (including 123 HSV vehicles)
South Africa - 47

All customers with vehicles within this range will be informed in writing by Holden and all three rear seat belt buckles with be replaced at no cost to the customer.

Holden New Zealand Managing Director, Peter Keley, today said Holden erred on the side of safety and recalled the vehicles.

"It's consistently been Holden's approach to quickly respond to any concern," Mr Keley said.

"The safety of our customers is always a high priority.

"We take customer safety very seriously and our customers would expect us to be vigilant.

"We have received no reports of this issue appearing in customer cars but we are taking this action regardless."

Any customer with concerns about the recall should call Holden Customer Assistance Centre on 0800 465 336 or the service department of any Holden dealership.

For media enquiries, contact:
Brodie McClellan
(09) 978 3619 or 029 978 3619
brodie.mcclellan@gm.com