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Chevy Volt Owners: Get Your Car To the Dealer Before It Catches Fire
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8,000 Chevy Volt owners are being asked to get their cars back to the dealers because an issue with the battery could cause the vehicle to catch fire.
General Motors became aware of the issue following crash tests run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. CNN Money notes:
The fires, which happ[e]ned one to three weeks after the crash tests, were sparked after the cars had been slowly rotated as part of a post-test procedure causing the coolant to come into contact with circuit boards. The batteries were still charged at the time.
"The fires have been blamed on a coolant leak that caused an electrical short," adds CBS2.
GM, however, wants to emphasize this isn't a recall, it's just a repair. From the Battle Creek Enquirer:
The free repairs, announced Thursday, will fix 8,000 Volts on U.S. roads and another 4,400 still for sale. The cars are covered by a "customer service campaign" run by GM, which is similar to a safety recall but allows the carmaker to avoid the bad publicity and federal monitoring that come with a recall.
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