General Motors recalls 720,000 more vehicles

General Motors has announced yet another sprawling recall campaign, with six separate elements covering 717,950 vehicles on U.S. roads. At this point in 2014, it’s starting to seem like there are more days with a GM recall than without. Perhaps most troubling about this latest volley, though, is that every vehicle is from the past few years, indicating that GM’s quality woes may not be limited to pre-bankruptcy vehicles.

The problems ranged from a broken screw that could cause front seats to move up and down freely to problems with some welds to problems with the power steering. GM said it is aware of two crashes and three injuries, but no deaths associated with the problems prompting the recall. GM has now recalled nearly 30 million vehicles since the start of the year, by far a record for any automaker and more than half the vehicles recalled by the industry as a whole.

Most of GM’s recalls this year have been for older models, but many of the recalls announced Wednesday are for current-model vehicles, including about 57,000 Chevrolet Impala sedans from the 2014 model year for the loss of power steering.

The latest recalls hit GM’s best-selling vehicles, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks, from the 2014-2015 model years. They were among about 124,000 vehicles across eight model lines recalled because a weld on seat brackets may not have been done properly. GM said it expects that 1 percent of welds were not completed properly.

In a release announcing the recall, GM tried to put a positive spin on the whole thing. “These recalls signify how we’ve enhanced our approach to safety,” said Jeff Boyer, vice president, Global Vehicle Safety. “We are bringing greater rigor and discipline to our analysis and decision making. If we identify an issue – large or small – that might affect the safety of our customers, we will act decisively.” Apparently, they don’t test drive the cars before they sell them.

GM is due to report financial results Thursday. It has said the cost of recalls announced in the second quarter will be at least $700 million, on top of the $1.3 billion charge it took in the first quarter that essentially wiped out its profit for the period. The automaker is also expected to give its first estimate of the cost of settling with victims of its ignition switch recall. Read more about the story here.