Photo: GM
At long last, the big wigs from General Motors got off their high horses and consented to pay for delayed reporting of the deadly ignition switches fitted to millions of the company's vehicles.
Mind you, the world's second largest automaker got away pretty easy with just $35 million (€25.5 million at current exchange rates) for lying to its customers with fatal consequences.
With an offensively rude smarty pants attitude, GM CEO Mary Barra declared: "We have learned a great deal from this recall. We will now focus on the goal of becoming an industry leader in safety. We will emerge from this situation a stronger company." But could she say the same things in the face of mourning families that lost their beloveds in accidents caused by Government Motors' faulty vehicles? We bet not.
Big kudos to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's acting administrator, David Friedman, for his take-no-prisoners approach on this matter: "No excuse, process, or organizational structure will be allowed to stand in the way of any company meeting their obligation to quickly find and fix safety issues in a vehicle. It's critical to the safety of the driving public that manufacturers promptly report and remedy safety-related defects that have the potential to lead to deaths or injuries on our nation's highways."
Besides the modest fine, General Motors signed a consent order which states that the NHTSA will be granted full access to the automaker's internal investigations related to safety issues. The Detroit giant also agreed to notify the NHTSA of changes to its schedule for completing production of repair parts for the affected vehicles by October 4th, 2014.
We remind you that General Motors' botched ignition switch recall totals 2,190,934 vehicles in the United States alone. The call back operation covers the 2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2007-2010 Pontiac G5, 2003-2007 Saturn Ion, 2006-2011 Chevrolet HHR, 2006-2010 Pontiac Solstice and 2007-2010 Saturn Sky vehicles.
With an offensively rude smarty pants attitude, GM CEO Mary Barra declared: "We have learned a great deal from this recall. We will now focus on the goal of becoming an industry leader in safety. We will emerge from this situation a stronger company." But could she say the same things in the face of mourning families that lost their beloveds in accidents caused by Government Motors' faulty vehicles? We bet not.
Big kudos to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's acting administrator, David Friedman, for his take-no-prisoners approach on this matter: "No excuse, process, or organizational structure will be allowed to stand in the way of any company meeting their obligation to quickly find and fix safety issues in a vehicle. It's critical to the safety of the driving public that manufacturers promptly report and remedy safety-related defects that have the potential to lead to deaths or injuries on our nation's highways."
Besides the modest fine, General Motors signed a consent order which states that the NHTSA will be granted full access to the automaker's internal investigations related to safety issues. The Detroit giant also agreed to notify the NHTSA of changes to its schedule for completing production of repair parts for the affected vehicles by October 4th, 2014.
We remind you that General Motors' botched ignition switch recall totals 2,190,934 vehicles in the United States alone. The call back operation covers the 2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2007-2010 Pontiac G5, 2003-2007 Saturn Ion, 2006-2011 Chevrolet HHR, 2006-2010 Pontiac Solstice and 2007-2010 Saturn Sky vehicles.
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