Posted on 04/02/2014 3:35:15 PM PDT by alloysteel
Members of a Senate subcommittee accused General Motors of trying to cover up problems with an ignition switch that is now tied to 13 deaths, and pressed CEO Mary Barra to commit to punishing anyone involved.
Panel members also told Barra that GM should tell owners to stop driving all the 2.6 million cars being recalled for the faulty switch until they are repaired. GM is currently telling owners the cars, mainly Chevrolet Cobalts and Saturn Ions, are fine to drive as long as nothing is placed on the key chain.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I doubt I could care less what happen to Government Motors.
Anything owned and run by the anti-American UAW needs to fall apart.
And it will.
It’s defective people, not switches!
A friend of mine that had a tune up and dyno shop over 30 years ago was constantly having the problem when switches on the column came out.
The problem was people having a whole lot of keys on the ring/chain dangling below the ignition which was messing up the switches.
That was all makes nor just GM.
Congress can go stick their investigation up their ass!!!
Hey, wasn’t Obama CEO of Government Motors? Impeach him!
Henry Waxman doesn’t know how to deal with a real reporter about this issue.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3140093/posts
They’ve been building cars since when, 1889?
Why is it they keep having to recall cars for faulty components they should have perfected by about 1903?
Not to absolve GM of blame but how is this causing people to crash?
“The problem was people having a whole lot of keys on the ring/chain dangling below the ignition which was messing up the switches.”
Obviously, this is a bad policy and a safety hazard for the driver EVEN WITH switches that work perfectly.
What I find highly disturbing about what happened, is that GM changed the part without changing the part number. In the manufacturing environments I’ve worked in, that behavior would get you fired very quickly, up to the managers who permitted/ignored it.
The reason is, manufacturing must have traceability for liability and safety agency reasons. Suppose that you have a recall of an electrical, UL-approved product for a safety reason. What would you rather do - recall and eat the expense of units between serial number 000234 and 003456, or every single product of that type you ever made, up to serial number 856,456?
It is not like it is floor mats or something. /s
Were the switches made in China?
“Why is it they keep having to recall cars for faulty components they should have perfected by about 1903?”
The government’s fingerprints are on this. modern cars have to have their steering locked if the key is removed. The cheapest way to do this is to put the lock on the steering column itself. On my older Mercedes, the key/lock is on the dash, and this type of problem is flat impossible mechanically.
There shouldn’t be a recall. it’s defect people not defective switches!
I have no sympathy for stupid people getting killed, the more the better!
Plenty of comments about the growing danger of increased safety equipment in this thread from yesterday.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3139629/posts
In this GM case, from what I’ve read, steering lock isn’t even part of the problem. As far as I can tell, this causes a loss of power and the airbags don’t deploy. It doesn’t explain how it causes people to crash.
“I have no sympathy for stupid people getting killed, the more the better!”
You and I probably do or have earned a living from the vagaries of “stupid people”. Dead stupid people are terrible customers.
The bottom line is, that mechanism/switch is supposed to withstand repeated hammer blows to significant government standards. So, it can’t survive 6 ounces of keys??? You think that to be an acceptable design?
“In this GM case, from what I’ve read, steering lock isn’t even part of the problem. As far as I can tell, this causes a loss of power the airbags don’t deploy. It doesn’t explain how it causes people to crash.”
The steering column MAY lock. Also, many cars have power steering and/or brakes. Newer cars can have electric power steering. A sudden increase in steering effort might make a big difference in accident avoidance capability.
“You think that to be an acceptable design?”
absolutely!!
I was surprised that the airbags don’t deploy if the engine somehow is shut off. I thought they deployed on impact. That sounds like something drivers should know.
Back when I worked for a company that made interior Cadillac door skins we had some 60,000 doors come back to replace studs inside the doors.
Seems that the studs were too long and snagged the air bags when they deployed.
GM saved .57 cents per ignition device. Email found stated that was too costly. They could have spent $100 million several years ago in a recall but decided against that. The cost is at least $1.5 billion now and many more people have been killed or injured.
All for .57 cents.
The people who decided this no doubt got a nice bonus check for money saved....
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