Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Five Takeaways from the GM Safety Debacle
Townhall.com ^ | April 10, 2014 | Peter Morici

Posted on 04/10/2014 9:04:06 AM PDT by Kaslin

Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, was called before Senate and House Committees last week to explain why a faulty ignition switch, responsible for at least 13 crash deaths, was not recalled for several years in vehicles manufactured by GM.

Barra, who served as Executive Vice President for Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain until January, told members of Congress that she had no knowledge of the switch problem prior to the recent recalls.

Members of Congress were left frustrated. Neither Barra nor federal regulators provided good answers as to why the vehicles were not recalled sooner and the faulty part continued to be installed in GM vehicles for so many years.

Here are five takeaways from the hearings and what we know so far from the actions of GM and government officials.

1. The GM bailout failed and $10 Billion in Taxpayer Money has been squandered

Starting in 2009, the U.S. Treasury put $51 billion into General Motors—through loans and stock purchases—and ultimately lost $10 billion. Part of President Obama’s strategy to put GM through “quick wash” bankruptcy, this left most of the existing management in place.

Managements’ mediocre commitment to quality and safety helped put GM into financial trouble a decade ago, and now we see that problem continues unabated.

Had GM been forced through conventional bankruptcy reorganization, private investors would have replaced much of the existing senior management with more customer focused leadership. Better quality control systems to guard against episodes like the ignition switch scandal could have saved lives.

2. GM’s culture is broken. The company can’t make reliably safe cars

GM has heavily layered and highly compartmentalized management and product design structures. Problems like the ignition switch can be discovered by GM engineers—as the result of customer complaints or tragic accidents—but go unnoticed by other units and senior leadership.

All this results in top management left unaware of tragic defects, and the public driving unsafe vehicles that should have never been put on the road.

3. There’s not much accountability for bureaucrats at the Obama White House

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was aware of the ignition switch problem as early as 2007 but took no concrete action to protect drivers and passengers.

President Obama was quick to hold investors and company officials accountable after the 2010 BP Horizon disaster, but not nearly enough happened to the government officials charged with overseeing the project and who turned a blind eye or were simply lazy.

Now, members of Congress from both parties are livid with NHSTA about its lax response to the GM ignition switch problem, but the White House is not rushing to get to the root of accountability at NHTSA or replace the administrator.

4. The safety of all GM vehicles is now in question

The first three months of 2014, more than six million GM vehicles were recalled to repair product defects. Of 23 auto brands ranked by Consumer Reports for quality—Chevrolet and Cadillac are 19 and 20. And the consumer watchdog only recommended for purchase about one-quarter of models produced under those nameplates, even before this scandal broke.

If Barra did not know about the ignition switch problem in her position heading product development, purchasing and global supply chain management, what other safely issues is she unaware—or is she aware but not yet revealing?

Until she can certify all GM products are free of suspected but unpublicized safety defects, it is irresponsible to put a child in a GM vehicle.

5. US media bias is whitewashing the president’s culpability

In 2008, I testified before the Senate Banking Committee that a federal bailout of the automakers would be a grave mistake.

Subsequently, after the industry recovered to profitability, I was repeatedly called by journalists asking if I would care to recant my statements.

Now, the failure of the bailout to break the GM culture of complacency toward poor quality and inattention to safety has been fully demonstrated by the ignition switch scandal. But I am not hearing from those progressive advocates of the Obama administration in the Fourth Estate.

Markets, not government ministries, should be left to discipline incompetence but that does not seem to happen in Barack Obama’s America. Instead, we simply “quick wash” insolvent companies, subsidize them and let incompetent managers continue to prey on consumers.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: congressionalhearing; corruption; generalmotors; recalls
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-29 next last

1 posted on 04/10/2014 9:04:06 AM PDT by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Did they fix the product quality and business issues that forced them into bankruptcy in the first place? I argue no because they didn’t have to — the taxpayers bailed them out.

If they had gone through bankruptcy, they would have been forced to clean house, streamline, and become efficient.


2 posted on 04/10/2014 9:09:37 AM PDT by dhs12345
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

On top of safety and basic build quality, someone at GM has lost their eyesight. Just looking at one of those brand new Chevy pickups in the parking lot. Only one word for it. U.G.L.Y.

I don’t know who thought that look was a winner but they need their head and their eyes examined by professionals.


3 posted on 04/10/2014 9:10:16 AM PDT by FAA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Another takeaway...

6. NEVER buy a GM car.

Supporting Unions and a Nationalized Socialist company is unAmerican.

4 posted on 04/10/2014 9:10:41 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Correct me if I am wrong; but, didn’t GM get a government bailout during the Reagan Presidency?


5 posted on 04/10/2014 9:12:36 AM PDT by Nip (BOHEICA and TANSTAAFL - both seem very appropriate today.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dhs12345
Did they fix the product quality and business issues that forced them into bankruptcy in the first place? I argue no because they didn’t have to — the taxpayers bailed them out.
If they had gone through bankruptcy, they would have been forced to clean house, streamline, and become efficient.

*************************

Exactly right.

6 posted on 04/10/2014 9:13:16 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: FAA

The current line of Chevy/GMC pickups make the 1949 Dodge pickups and light trucks look positively handsome.

And that was hard to do.


7 posted on 04/10/2014 9:13:49 AM PDT by alloysteel (Selective and willful ignorance spells doom, to both victim and perpetrator - mostly the perp.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

“In 2008, I testified before the Senate Banking Committee that a federal bailout of the automakers would be a grave mistake.

Subsequently, after the industry recovered to profitability, I was repeatedly called by journalists asking if I would care to recant my statements.”

Didn’t they use TARP money to pay off the loan? If true, not exactly worthy of a “recant.” Why? Because all they did was shuffle money around and didn’t address the fundamental problems that forced the bankruptcy in the first place.


8 posted on 04/10/2014 9:14:28 AM PDT by dhs12345
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

2. GM’s culture is broken. The company can’t make reliably safe cars


I’m sorry, but 13 deaths out of 1.6 million cars does not an “unsafe” car make.

I HATE GM, but this demand for perfection is laughable.


9 posted on 04/10/2014 9:15:36 AM PDT by cuban leaf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

“6. NEVER buy a GM car.”

This is all any of us need to know. GM products have been crap for years, surpassed only by Chrysler products (which, to be fair, don’t have any major safety defects to speak of).


10 posted on 04/10/2014 9:19:38 AM PDT by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (I'm not anti-government, government's anti-me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: dhs12345
Did they fix the product quality and business issues that forced them into bankruptcy in the first place?

To do so would have meant two things:

Spending money to fix the problems, including those in existing vehicles.

Admitting there was a problem and letting the PR chips fall where they may.

Admitting there were unsolved issues would take a back seat to the image of shining success of the Obama regime.

How typical, someone decided to double down again, regardless of reality. I sense a pattern, here, where reality is twisted for the sake of the image and the press plays along.

11 posted on 04/10/2014 9:19:59 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: dhs12345

They did hire the 1st female CEO to take the fall though.


12 posted on 04/10/2014 9:31:47 AM PDT by jospehm20
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: jospehm20
Lol. I bet that she wasn't too happy.

If things don't go well for her, she'll get a NICE golden parachute thanks to American taxpayers.

13 posted on 04/10/2014 9:34:13 AM PDT by dhs12345
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: ZirconEncrustedTweezers
Exactly. Our ship left that port many years ago.

And our opinion of GM was reinforced last year when we tried to get my Dad's Jimmy running so that we could sell it.

It only had 98K miles and was having serious problems. The GM repair tech wanted to rebuild the engine. Lol. We refused and sold it for pennies. Turns out the that “computer chip” wasn't working properly — we found this out from the people that we sold it to. IMO, the GM techs are boobs. Same with the rest of the company.

14 posted on 04/10/2014 9:42:21 AM PDT by dhs12345
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe

That is always the issue with a business. The cost trade off of admitting that you were wrong versus hiding it or ignoring it and hoping that it will go away.

I have little tolerance for GM, though. I have had a lot of problems with them in the past.

Worst of all, we Americans are all “investors” and so we have a lot more of a right to complain than, for example, Toyota, etc.


15 posted on 04/10/2014 9:46:32 AM PDT by dhs12345
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Nip

President Reagan bailed out Chrysler and Harley Davidson


16 posted on 04/10/2014 10:06:30 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: cuban leaf
2. GM’s culture is broken. The company can’t make reliably safe cars

Absolutely correct. Somebody ought to sit down and figure out how many trillions of miles these 1.6M cares were driven and thus the deaths per mile.

Then go ahead and say it's unsafe to drive 10 miles to the store when the chance of a fatal accident is one in 1,000,000 or whatever it might be.

Meanwhile we cheerfully ignore much, much greater risks to children and others because we're used to them.

17 posted on 04/10/2014 10:18:21 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe
Admitting there were unsolved issues would take a back seat to the image of shining success of the Obama regime.

Except that when the issue first arose, and should have been dealt with, Obama was just a nobody in Illinois.

18 posted on 04/10/2014 10:20:10 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Sherman Logan

OK, ran some numbers myself.

Let’s assume these cars were driven an average of 100,000 miles, possibly high, but not unreasonable.

That means they were driven a total of 160,000,000,000 or 160T miles. Which means somewhere around 12B miles per fatality.

Sounds pretty darn safe to me.


19 posted on 04/10/2014 10:29:34 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Sherman Logan

Despite his having claimed a Kenyan origin in his early days, no one wanted to look at the NBC issue and declared us all “birthers”. Sometimes a conspiracy theory is just a conspiracy.


20 posted on 04/10/2014 12:11:38 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-29 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson