GM RecallS 778,00 Vehicles to Replace Ignition Switch After Fatal Crashes

General Motors is recalling almost 780,000 older-model compact cars in North America because a faulty ignition switch can shut off the engines without warning and cause crashes.
....
A heavy key ring or jarring from rough roads can move the ignition switch out of the run position, cutting off the engine and electrical power, GM said in statements and documents released Thursday by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. If that happens, the front air bags may not work if there's a crash.
GM says the six fatalities occurred in five front-end crashes, all of which happened off-road and at high speeds. In each case, the ignition switch moved out of the run position, shutting off the engine and electrical power, spokesman Alan Adler said. That condition would cause the loss of power-steering assist and power-assisted brakes, he said.
...
One owner complained to NHTSA in July of last year that the engine stopped several times while a 2006 Cobalt was being driven. "Lately my car has been dying while coming to a stop or going to take off," the person wrote. "This is really scary when I pull out in busy traffic! I was almost T-Boned one day, but thank goodness I was able to restart my car in time."
...
GM's Adler said the problem was discovered when the company got reports of crashes in which the air bags did not inflate. According to GM documents filed with NHTSA, the company knew of the problem as early as May of last year.

Click to expand...

Rockster said:

GM recalling 778K vehicles to replace ignition switches after fatal crashes | The Detroit News

One interesting note from the article:

"GM said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration never investigated the issue. The automaker learned of it through field reports."

Click to expand...

The Cobalt and G5 have been subject to recalls before, including a 2010 recall to fix power steering systems in some 1.3 million Chevrolets and Pontiacs. That recall included 2005-2010 Cobalts, 2007-2010 G5s and other vehicles, spurred after a U.S. investigation into consumer complaints over sudden loss of power steering. In that case, GM initially had investigated the problem in 2009 and opted not to recall the vehicles, but reversed course after NHTSA opened an investigation.

Click to expand...

General Motors has linked seven more deaths to its faulty ignition switch recall and added to the recall the other four GM cars using the same switch as the Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac G5 cars recalled Feb. 13.

GM on Tuesday increased the number of deaths it links to the problem from six to 13 and the number of crashes from 22 to 31 as it expanded the recall by more than 748,024 vehicles to more than 1.37 million in the U.S., plus an additional 253,519 vehicles in Canada and Mexico.

Click to expand...

In a 27-page order sent to GM Tuesday, NHTSA demanded pictures, memos, electronic communications, engineering drawings and other data to answer 107 questions about the case. The reply, which must be signed under oath by a company officer, is due April 3. GM spokesman Alan Adler said Wednesday that the company is cooperating.

NHTSA wants the documents to determine if GM delayed its response or withheld evidence. In either case, NHTSA could fine GM up to $35 million. Automakers are required to inform NHTSA of safety defects within five days of discovering them. Such a fine would be a record for NHTSA but essentially is pocket change for GM, which made $3.8 billion last year.

Included in the order are a series of questions about when GM discovered the ignition problem in 2004 and the identity of employees involved in finding and replicating it. The order asks what fixes GM considered "including the lead time required, costs and effectiveness of each of the solutions."

Click to expand...

More than 260 complaints were made during the past 11 years about Cobalts and other General Motors cars that suddenly shut off while driving, or about two complaints per month, according to an analysis by The New York Times. With GM's recall of 1.6 million cars last month, the finger pointing has begun.

Click to expand...

Many of the complaints detailed frightening scenes in which moving cars suddenly stalled at high speeds, on highways, in the middle of city traffic, and while crossing railroad tracks. A number of the complaints warned of catastrophic consequences if something was not done.

Click to expand...

But evidence from a lawsuit filed by the parents of Brooke Melton, whose Chevy Cobalt spun out of control after shutting off on her 29th birthday, shows that in 2006 GM altered two internal pieces of its ignition switches in a way that would make it less likely for the ignition to shut off accidentally – and made the change without alerting the government or the owners of the cars affected.
...
Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a watchdog group, accused GM of a “callous disregard for human life.”

"GM had an obligation under the Safety Act,” said Ditlow, “to notify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that there was a defect, we’re correcting it, and they had the additional obligation to recall the earlier models with the unsafe part.”

Four days before the accident, according to the Meltons, Brooke’s car had shut off while she was driving and she had lost her power steering and her brakes. She was able to pull her car over and restart it. She called her father, and he said they should take it to a dealership in the morning.

Brooke got her car back from the dealership on March 9, 2010. She died in an accident the next day. “There was no doubt in my mind that it was caused by the same engine cutting off,” said Ken. The Meltons called a lawyer.

Click to expand...

ggies07 said:

Nearly Every GM Model Touched by Recalls This Year - NBC News

Can GM just die already? They seem to not be able to make an ICE anymore and are not going in the direction of EVs, so I think it's time.

Click to expand...

qwk said:

That's what happens when you reward incompetence. Hopefully, it won't be long before GM is gone for good. It's not a question of if, but when.

Click to expand...