GM tells dealers to stop selling about 21,000 Chevrolet Cruze compacts, won’t give reason

DETROIT – General Motors Corp. has told dealers to stop selling about 21,000 Chevrolet Cruze compact cars from the 2013 and 2014 model years.

But the company won’t say why.

The order covers Cruzes equipped with 1.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engines. Spokesman Alan Adler said Friday it includes about one-third of the Cruzes on dealer lots across the nation. At the end of February, GM had 63,714 Cruzes in dealer stock, according to Ward’s AutoInfoBank.

The move comes as GM deals with fallout from a delayed recall of 1.6 million older small cars to fix an ignition switch problem. The Detroit company says the switches can slip out of the run position and shut down the engine. That causes loss of power steering and brakes and disables air bags.

GM says the problem has been linked to 31 crashes and at least a dozen deaths.

Dealers say stop-sale orders are routine and almost always made to fix a safety problem. They received the order in an email Thursday, but no reason was given. More information is expected on Monday.

GM spokesmen said they don’t have further details on the Cruze.

The stop-sale order was first reported Friday by the trade publication Automotive News.