Managers at General Motors rejected improvements to the automaker's faulty ignition switch in 2005 because they would have cost an extra 57 cents per part, according to documents released to the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. On Tuesday, during the first Congressional hearing into GM's 13-year delay to recall stalling cars that have led to at least 12 deaths, CEO Mary Barra testified before the Committee that her company's actions were "not the way we do business" and that an internal audit will "hold ourselves fully accountable."
Barra, facing testy questions and political showboating that typically accompany Congressional hearings, said she didn't know who approved the redesigned ignition switch in 2006 without changing the part number. That alone led GM last week to recall every single model fitted with the questionable switch, estimated at about 2.6 million cars worldwide. Barra said had GM recalled those cars in 2007, it would have cost the company less than $100 million compared to the minimum $750 million charge GM is expecting to record on its financial statements.
"I think in the past we had a cost culture and we are going to a customer culture," Barra told the Committee. "If we are making a decision on safety, we don't even look at the cost. We make the change."
After apologizing again to crash victims—some of who were present at the hearing—Barra said GM had a "civic" responsibility to affected owners but stopped short of addressing the company's legal right to block liability claims for all cars made before the 2009 bankruptcy. Several organizations, including the Ralph Nader–backed Center for Auto Safety and Consumers Union, want GM to create a trust fund that would pay for damages otherwise not covered in an ordinary lawsuit. Barra said it would take between one and two months before GM decides on a legal solution and said she did not know if any GM employees had been fired as a result of the recalls.
"Most importantly, it's leadership at the top, it's the leadership of how we behave, of how we demonstrate when we make decisions," Barra said. "We recognize culture change doesn't happen in a year or two, but we are well on that journey and we are dedicated to it."
The Committee lit a cooler flame under David Friedman, the interim director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, who simultaneously played both sides in blaming GM and offering results from an internal audit meant to improve the agency's investigation process.
In a written testimony, the NHTSA said it didn't spot a defect trend with the affected GM models in 2007 because the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion did not show significant crash and injury rates. NHTSA engineers didn't link non-deploying airbags with ignition switches since GM, knowing there was a connection at that time, did not submit the proper documents and the agency had believed airbags would stay active even if a car lost power, Friedman said. He did not address the hundreds of ignition switch complaints sent to the agency over the past decade but only offered that it needed to "more effectively, more efficiently use our resources to spot trends."
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Republican Rep. Henry Waxman of California, without providing details, said he would introduce a bill to increase the agency's budget and impose stiffer penalties on automakers for not complying with recalls. Citing company documents, Waxman said GM received 133 warranty claims of stalling cars and loose ignition switches between 2003 and 2012—most of which were not reported to the NHTSA.
Barra and Friedman will testify again Wednesday morning before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Replacement ignition switches for affected vehicles will begin arriving at dealerships beginning April 7.
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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