In the News
DETROIT — General Motors waited years to recall nearly 335,000 Saturn Ions for power steering failures despite getting thousands of consumer complaints and more than 30,000 warranty repair claims, according to government documents released Saturday.
Last month, Mary T. Barra, the new chief executive of General Motors, told a panel of stern and dubious House members that she first became aware of a serious safety issue with the Chevrolet Cobalt in December, two months before the company announced a recall that would eventually cover 2.6 million cars.
Andrew Smith finally understands why his 2006 Saturn Ion unexpectedly shut down on him twice — the same number of times he had to change his ignition switch.
"I'm pretty angry that people have been hurt by this," the Denver resident said. "And if reports are true that GM knew and released cars anyway, that's pretty bad."
General Motors chief executive Mary T. Barra faced a barrage of questions on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon on why the automaker had ignored complaints about faulty ignition switches for a decade without reporting the problem to federal regulators or acknowledging a safety defect.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The fix for a faulty ignition switch linked to 13 traffic deaths would have cost just 57 cents, members of Congress said Tuesday as they demanded answers from General Motors' new CEO on why the automaker took 10 years to recall cars with the defect.
Effort Gains Momentum in Light of GM Recalls
WASHINGTON—Lawmakers are reviving efforts to strengthen the powers and resources of the nation's auto-safety regulators as they dig more deeply into why General Motors Co. waited almost a decade to recall vehicles with an ignition-switch defect.
General Motors said on Friday that it was expanding its ignition switch recall to include an additional 971,000 small cars worldwide that may have been previously repaired with defective switches.
G.M. is already recalling 1.62 million cars, made in the 2007 model year and earlier, to replace switches that could accidentally be jostled and cut off engine power, deactivating air bags.
WASHINGTON—As he leads a congressional investigation into ignition defects in General Motors Co. GM -1.41% vehicles, Rep. Fred Upton might decide to look hardest at the auto maker's actions, or he might focus on regulatory lapses on the part of the federal government.
DENVER (AP) — New General Motors CEO Mary Barra has been cooperative with members of Congress investigating why the company did not act sooner to address a potentially deadly defect in some of its small cars, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette said.
On Friday, as General Motors expanded a recall of cars with defective ignition switches linked to at least a dozen deaths, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette announced she will lead an investigation into the ongoing safety and commerce issue.
GM added 824,000 vehicles from years 2008-11 to the 1.6 million cars already recalled from 2003-07.