Posted on 03/21/2014 3:39:19 PM PDT by grundle
The alarm bells first went off at the Center for Auto Safety on Feb. 13, when General Motors announced a recall of more than 780,000 model year 2005-2007 Cobalts and Pontiac G5s with faulty ignition switches.
Those ignition switches were so sensitive that even a slight jostle or heavy key ring could immediately shut down the vehicle’s power steering and brakes and prevent air bags from inflating to protect the driver and front seat passenger in case of a crash.
What really caught the auto safety watchdog’s eye was GM’s disclosure that six people had died in crashes related to the ignition problem.
“I said, ‘Six deaths? That’s a lot,’” Clarence Ditlow, the long-time executive director of the center, recalled this week. “The average recall doesn’t have a single death let alone six.”
Two weeks later, GM added 842,000 Ion compacts (model years 2003-2007), and Chevrolet HHR SUVs and Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky sports cars (2006-2007) to the list of cars being recalled for the ignition switch problem. Now GM was saying the number of fatalities had been revised upward to 12.
By then, Ditlow and his colleagues at the Washington-based auto safety center that had been co-founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader were on the case. The revelation of GM’s extraordinarily lengthy delay in recalling the faulty cars had the whiff of scandal to it, according to Ditlow, who is no stranger to high-profile auto industry controversies and cover-ups.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Automakers have been designing and using ignition switches for how many years? And now something so simple as an ignition switch has been causing deaths? There is something deeper to this story.
So how soon will the Obama Administration assess fines against the majority owners of GM, the US Taxpayers and the UAW? Will the administrators from the 2008 - 2012 government control be called to task for their failures?
Gee, what am I thinking?!?
"Now watch this drive."
The dealers don’t even have the replacement parts to fix the ignitions.
I wonder why GM doesn’t say this belongs to “old” GM ?
When is Chrysler going to fix the Total Integrated Power Modules?
True ‘dat.
We’re caught in the recall...
GM’s defense is that they went through bankruptcy and this should not affect the “new” GM.
That is malarkey. The CEO has been there for about 27 years, as have many others who knew about this, an actively covered it up.
Bankruptcy is no defense.
They need to pay dearly for covering this up.
$500 coupon towards another GM car. After going through this, who on earth would want a GM vehicle?
meanwhile, Toyota gets shaken down
The Democrat party is a criminal enterprise
Heads must roll......... literally
1. Design and manufacture outsourced to country with the lowest bidder.
2. Part designed using application running on Java.
3. Part designed by cheaper engineers recently out of college ... who will soon be laid off so company can hire even cheaper engineers are just now graduating.
I propose a “penalty fee” of $18,000,000,000,000.00...bitchez!
Refusing to buy their products would be a good start.
I had a GM about 5 years ago, and now have a Toyota, and will never buy another GM vehicle again.
It isn’t a scandal if it isn’t reported or dealt with. In fact, what do you bet this is another phony scandal? /sarc
Was the car that bad, or was it because of the bailouts? In my case, I was a satisfied GM customer, but screwing over the bond holders to pay off the UAW did it for me.
BTW, this cover up was going on while I was busy being satisfied with my GM, which only adds to my determination to never buy another GM.
Corruption.
Theft of taxpayer money.
Violations of bond holder rights.
And we have to listen to Rats go on & on about how fair & solvent this whole program has turned out.....
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