Read my lips, the ignition switch did NOT "cause" a single death! Even the NHTSA has said that these are related, but have NOT listed the switch as the cause of the DEATH! (etc.)
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Read my mind. You are talking lawyer talk, sophistry, spinning up input as an apologist for Big Car. Manufacturers with a 19th century monopolist mentality cut every ding dong corner they can. Why the sam hell you think we have a market for foreign cars in this country, eh? Quality issues? Nah. The consumer must have been hypnotized by an evil wizard.
Maybe GM should learn to add lawsuits to their manufacturing costs. The spring in the switch was weak and they knew it and they tried to sneak in a replacement without retrofitting cars with the weak spring. That's malfeasance. Fight the battles you can win.
OEM spring vs. replacement spring - http://tinyurl.com
From http://tinyurl.com/kl9u84x
"During depositions for their suit last year, the Meltons learned from GM engineers that the company had been aware of potential problems with its ignition systems before Brooke purchased her car in 2005. The Meltons’ lawyers also found evidence that GM had altered the design of ignition switches after Brooke purchased her Cobalt, but had done so without notifying federal regulators or car owners or changing the part number. The change, which apparently occurred in 2006, increased the size of the detent plunger and spring, a pair of parts that hold the ignition key in position – a change that an engineer hired by the lawyers said seemed intended to increase the “torque force” holding the key in place."
mal·fea·sance noun \ˌmal-ˈfē-zən(t)s\
law : illegal or dishonest activity especially by a public official or a corporation
Once again, you want GM to be held 100% to account for something that the OWNER did; something which the owners were told NOT to do!
I do investigations. Very seldom is there ever a single CAUSE for an incident. It usually has several mitigating circumstances. In this case, the cause of the problem is a less than perfect ignition switch, being used by stupid users who ignore the manufacturer!
I am NOT taking up for GM, I think they own some of the fault in this, but we conservatives always talk about personal responsibility. Well, these owners were told about the problem and what caused it and they continued to do stuff that violated the warnings.
As I stated in my last post, if GM develops a new spring that holds the brake better than the last model, does this mean that GM is conducting malfeasance by not replacing the same spring in all their past models? The answer is obviously NO! They found a problem, told people how to avoid the problem and now people like you want to crucify them because they didn’t rush out and make their vehicle idiot proof! Guess what, NO CAR is idiot proof!
I have owned vehicles that had recalls, everyone of those recalls were based on problems that either existed or came into being without any action on the part of the operator of the vehicle. THIS recall is based on a less than perfect ignition switch being used by someone who refuses to follow the manufacturers warnings/instructions. PERIOD!