IGNITION SWITCH MALFUNCTION COST COMPANY NOTHING TO FIX
Sometimes the best things in life really are free …
Take the “fix” for Government … err, General Motors deadly ignition switch malfunction. According to an internal GM investigation, the solution to the ignition switch problem that has killed 13 people (or more than 60 if you believe attorneys suing the company) cost the company nothing.
The defect – which prompted rolling recalls beginning back in February – caused select vehicles to slip out of their “drive” position, disabling critical braking, power steering and air bag functions (i.e. everything you need to avoid crashing your car).
More than 2.5 million GM vehicles have been recalled as a result of the defect – part of a record 14 million recalled vehicles this year.
Fifteen GM employees have been terminated over the scandal surrounding the ignition switch malfunction. Five others have been disciplined.
Who hasn’t lost her job? CEO Mary Barra, who was praised by U.S. President Barack Obama in this year’s State of the Union address.
“Our success should depend not on accident of birth, but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams,” Obama said of Barra. “It’s how the daughter of a factory worker is CEO of America’s largest automaker.”
Okay … Barra better get cracking on that work ethic, though, because in addition to its recalled vehicles, GM also has a record 825,805 vehicles sitting unsold on dealer lots.
21 comments
Why do you force everyone to listen to a damn commercial when your page is accessed. That sucks.
Yea, especially when you read at work, then everyone gets a good ear shot that you are doing something other than slaving away for a bit.
Keep the sound off. It’s annoying to everyone anyway.
To have to hear that dickhead Chad Connolly makes me want to puke
Money makes the political blogosphere go ’round.
Are you suggesting that Barra who’s been on the job only since Jan. 2014 should be held responsible for the issue that was covered up by others for the past several years?
Should she be held responsible for the design engineer executive who redisigned the part in order to cover up and correct the problem without telling anyone else about the change, a willfull violation of both corporate policy and Federal law?
Really? You are certainly quite the taskmaster aren’t you?
Are you still peddling the false story of 825,805 vehicles sitting unsold………..do you just not care about the integrity of any story you post? Unfair/unbalanced Fits…. http://www.snopes.com/photos/automobiles/unsoldcars.asp
According to the International Business Times, GM is sitting on 120 days worth of inventory. 40 days is considered to be the appropriate inventory level.
With GM being a GSE now, can’t we just call it “strategic reserve” and write it off to national security?
I remember Obummer saying, “GM is alive and Benladen is dead”.
Government Motors has killed more people than Obama.
Can we believe anything Obama or Ohaley says?
Guess Ohaley only kills childre through her blind, deaf, dumb and incompetent DSS.
What would she do if she had access to drones?
GM will never be profitable(long term) again. Multiple government issued press releases have declared they have paid us, the taxpayer, back…yet time and time again it comes out that the releases were bullshit…with the phony accounting bullshit to back it up.
They are now a government entity. But, that being said, this bullshit goes back before they made their deal with the devil and IMO it’s why they tried to bury it after the fact. (because a company that requires profit must by its nature be more pro-active in identifying and correcting its major mistakes for long run sustainability)
No manufacturer will ever make anything perfectly, let alone at a price point that’s affordable to the masses. You truly do break a few eggs to make an omelet, but in terms of the greater good-many more people benefit from affordable cars versus those being killed by them.
The cost of such lawsuits & family payoffs simply are a cost of doing business….most of you have no idea how many “GM ignition” type problems are out there for a variety of makes/models of cars-they are all over the place(just hidden away, somehow this one got out)…it’s always a number juggling game for actuaries working for major manufacturers.
Good thing it wasn’t MY family member. I would have decided the appropriate corporate eggs to “break”. Our justice system is bought and paid for by business. Just like government, corporate America needs some fear as a motivator to remain honest. Be afraid of cheating the consumer and the employee, just as the employee is afraid of cheating the business.
That might all be true to some extent, but victims of these defects are gonna get paid(not that they wouldn’t wish to have their loved ones back).
So the options in an imperfect world are either:
1. Regulate the shit of out car companies(which is really already done) more, and drive the cost of shit boxes up another $10k or more
2. Just accept the fact that people need affordable cars and there’s a price for that.
Exactly. And that, my friend, is the purpose of punitive damages. The availability of punitive damage awards in particularly egregious cases makes it impossible for the bean counters to figure out the probable cost of not spending money to correct safety issues.
If only GM were a private company…
And armed.
Surprised you bought into this. The “13 deaths” headline is highly questionable. If you are belted like you are supposed to be, the airbag provides a supplmental restraint but will not prevent severe injury or death if you hit a tree at 35 plus mph. It is a bag of air, for God’s sake. Most of these crash deaths are at much higher speeds. The cars didn’t cause the crash, the drivers did. Not sayin’ it isn’t a defect, just don’t belive everything you read. And BTW the US Government no longer owns any GM stock.
All relevant points, but that little comment at the end, well…the method by which GM debt was relieved via ‘non bankruptcy’ has left a fault corporate culture intact and I suspect it’s now doing business via the old Chrysler model…meaning more bailouts are on the way.
The gov’t is less then six months from divestiture and GM has huge liability issues that popped up just three months after it sold(I’m sure those in gov’t knew, anyone gonna be prosecuted for insider trading on that one? doubtful).
So the taxpayer takes around a $9 billion dollar hit after the tax sale on GM, $17 billion on GMAC(Ally) the same month, which I could argue is the same thing as GM IMO, so you are talking $26 billion less than six months ago and now GM has massive inventories, and it’s new financial arm, GM Financial, is buried once again up to its eyeballs in subprime loans for GM….
Screw GM…seriously.
Still loving my 2012 Silverado LTZ 4×4. Thinking of getting a 2014 because they are that much better..which is pretty damn good.
Shitty American cars are a thing of the past. Get over it !
Remember Obama’s reframe,”Osama is dead and GM is still alive and killing people.”
Maybe we should have employed GM to fight terrorism..