RIYADH, 29 July — The General Motors Company confirmed yesterday that the Lumina cars exported to the Middle East region including Saudi Arabia are free of technical faults detected by US road safety experts in certain GMC models.
US experts cited seven technical faults in Lumina and Suburban series produced during 1999 and 2000. They are in seat belts, hydraulic break system, fuel tanks, air bags and rear breaks.
“Back-wheel-drive Chevrolet Lumina series exported to the Middle East are produced in GM’s Australian factories,” a media official at the company told Arab News. He pointed out that front-wheel-drive cars, which were found to have technical defects, had been manufactured in the US factories.
He said the cars pulled back by the company did not include vehicles exported to the Middle East. However, he admitted that the Suburban series exported to the Middle East had technical faults, but only a few such cars had been exported to the region. “There was only one faulty Suburban in the Kingdom and we have repaired it.”
Lumina and Suburban are popular in the Kingdom. The cars classified by the US authorities as faulty included five batches of Lumina, four of them having only one fault. A technical fault was detected in the hydraulic break control system of the Suburban series manufactured in 1999.
