How [the old] GM Betrayed its Customers, and Costed Lives
Newly unearthed legal documents show GM knew about faulty ignition switches on the Chevrolet Cobalt and other vehicles before it even began selling the models in 2004. It launched the vehicles anyway, figuring owners would be able to get off the road safely if the car shut down during travel. GM made “a business decision not to fix this problem,” a company engineer explained under oath in 2013, according to the Wall Street Journal, as part of a lawsuit involving a Georgia woman who died in a Cobalt that shut down at highway speeds and crashed.
Now for the safety bit. As part of the 2013 lawsuit, GM officials suggested the Cobalt could be safely brought to rest if the ignition switch failed and the key inadvertently slipped from “on” to “off.” Too bad they didn’t put that in the sales brochure. “Just coast to a pleasing halt!” Chevy could have enticed buyers. You can imagine the emergency meetings at Honda and Toyota as they pondered whether to copy this groundbreaking, surprise-shutdown feature.
What still isn’t known is how high up at GM the decision to send deeply flawed vehicles onto American roads went. But something is culturally rotten at a company if mid-level managers responsible for safety can rationalize away something as severe as a high-speed shutdown. Nobody up the chain is telling them quality is crucial. What the bosses probably are saying is, keep costs down, no matter what. Such contempt for customers often leads straight to the corporate graveyard. Come to think of it, that's exactly what happened to GM.
The automaker says the faulty switches have now been linked to 31 crashes involving 12 deaths, and an unknown number of injuries. So far, the company has recalled 1.6 million vehicles with the problem. Several federal investigations are underway and the automaker or certain executives could face criminal charges.
http://ift.tt/P16qxq
Newly unearthed legal documents show GM knew about faulty ignition switches on the Chevrolet Cobalt and other vehicles before it even began selling the models in 2004. It launched the vehicles anyway, figuring owners would be able to get off the road safely if the car shut down during travel. GM made “a business decision not to fix this problem,” a company engineer explained under oath in 2013, according to the Wall Street Journal, as part of a lawsuit involving a Georgia woman who died in a Cobalt that shut down at highway speeds and crashed.
Now for the safety bit. As part of the 2013 lawsuit, GM officials suggested the Cobalt could be safely brought to rest if the ignition switch failed and the key inadvertently slipped from “on” to “off.” Too bad they didn’t put that in the sales brochure. “Just coast to a pleasing halt!” Chevy could have enticed buyers. You can imagine the emergency meetings at Honda and Toyota as they pondered whether to copy this groundbreaking, surprise-shutdown feature.
What still isn’t known is how high up at GM the decision to send deeply flawed vehicles onto American roads went. But something is culturally rotten at a company if mid-level managers responsible for safety can rationalize away something as severe as a high-speed shutdown. Nobody up the chain is telling them quality is crucial. What the bosses probably are saying is, keep costs down, no matter what. Such contempt for customers often leads straight to the corporate graveyard. Come to think of it, that's exactly what happened to GM.
The automaker says the faulty switches have now been linked to 31 crashes involving 12 deaths, and an unknown number of injuries. So far, the company has recalled 1.6 million vehicles with the problem. Several federal investigations are underway and the automaker or certain executives could face criminal charges.
http://ift.tt/P16qxq
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