Posted on 04/01/2014 9:39:04 AM PDT by jazusamo
In apparent response to our request, General Motors announced today that it would recall 1.3 million vehicles that may experience sudden power steering loss.
We made the request on March 19 after NLPC Associate Fellow Mark Modica found a glaring anomaly while examining documents on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website. NHTSA had already ordered a recall in March 2010 of Chevy Cobalts and Pontiac G5s for the steering loss defect but three years later had not yet ordered a recall of Saturn Ions, which have the same power steering system. In my March 19 letter to GM CEO Mary Barra, I wrote, "We do not know why NHTSA has not already ordered a recall or whether politics enter into its decision-making process. It doesn't matter. You have the authority to immediately recall these vehicles."
The recall is even broader than we requested. We asked GM to recall 382,000 Saturn Ions. The recall announced today also includes the Chevy Malibu, Malibu Maxx, Chevrolet HHR, Saturn Aura and Pontiac G6, for a staggering total of 1.3 million vehicles. Although it includes many of the same vehicles, this recall is separate from the recalls for the ignition switch defect. As pointed out by Modica earlier today, the steering loss defect is far more expensive for GM to fix than the ignition switch problem, perhaps accounting for GM's slowness in ordering a recall.
Our March 19 request generated coverage by the Associated Press and Automotive News . In the interim, we repeated our request several times, including in Modica's website posting this morning titled "Congress Must Ask Barra Why GM Hasn't recalled Saturn Ions With Power Steering Loss."
No worries — it’s Government Motors. We, the taxpayers of America, will pay for this one way or another.
Actually, isn’t GM now owned by the unions?
Lawyers are going to feast on the wrongful death lawsuits.
We’ll surely pick up the tab should GM go into another bankruptcy and these recalls they ignored could help put them there again.
I think it is owned by UAW retirees now (majority)....but yes, unions.
GM...more obviously “Government Motors” than ever before. Criminal boobs.
Anyone else wondering now about the Govt. suddenly dumping the stock recently? insider trading possibly? hahahahaha
No worries — it’s Government Motors. We, the taxpayers of America, will pay for this one way or another.
Just in time, apparently...
are there any gm cars left on the road?
True...calling obama GM needs another bailout, can’t wait get your pen out.
My wife’s Saturn Ion’s steering went out while in a parking lot a year ago. Hate to think if this had happened on the Interstate. I wrote a letter to the dealer and GM that if she had been hurt or killed by the time I was done with them I’d own the dealership. The steering unit was replaced without charge —— Big Deal! GMC has known about this for years. They deserve everything they get.
Shoot the company and put it out of its misery.
It has long been run by MBAs, financeers, politicians, and others of ill repute that did not listen to its engineers (the dumbest of whom had an IQ roughly twice the highest IQ of its leaders). And no, do not mention the pseudo-engineers who made it to the top...they did that by making sure that their lobotomy destroyed any real technical ability...how else to explain the cr*p...er....sticky Obama-stuff that oozed out of their factories.
Die, GM, die. I want to take a bodacious Obama-thing on your grave. And take the UAW with you.
GM announced toward the end of last year they were going to buy back close to 50% of the shares from the UAW retirement fund but don’t know if they did.
GM should have been broken up.
I would just point out to those bitching about the mandated back-up cameras, this kind of screw-up is what give the gov’t the idea they have to mandate stuff.
I drove a Chevies for more than 40 years, but my last GM vehicle, a Chevy Blazer, had so many problems starting within the first week I owned it, that I sold it bought my first foreign made vehicle a Mazda. My Mazda 3 with just short of 120,000 miles has had zero repairs and even the brakes and exhaust system are still factory original. The is no way I would ever by another GM product.
Considering what we know now,I think some people need to go to prison for a long time.
I heard about their bait and switch thing....somehow they are claiming they ‘paid everything back’ and ‘bought up stock’, but they NEVER paid back the Premium Bond holders they let Obama extort them out of for cents on the dollar. Nor did they EVER pay back all of the multiple loans they got.
You have to carefully watch their parsed language. In this respect, they are worse than Slick Willie.
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