General Motors’ social media campaign to coax consumers to fix their recalled vehicles doesn’t appear to be getting the job done. With just about half of the 2.4 million vehicles recalled for an ignition switch defect having been fixed, the car manufacturer has turned to dangling money in front of consumers to get the potentially dangerous cars off the road. [More]
general motors
“Technology & Stuff” Chevy Rep Gives Recently Recalled Truck To World Series MVP
By 10.30.14
Forget Madison Bumgarner’s historic heroics in last night’s Game 7 of the 2014 World Series, the true Most Valuable Player of this postseason is Rikk Wilde, a regional Chevy executive who was thrust into the spotlight after Wednesday’s game and unwittingly turned himself into an Internet icon, while also handing out a recently recalled truck. [More]
GM Ignition Switch Death Claims Inch Higher Again; 29 Deaths Now Tied To Decade-Old Defect
By 10.20.14
Slowly but surely the General Motors victim compensation plan continues to add new death claims linked to defective ignition switches. This week, as with several previous weeks, the total number of innocent lives lost as a result of the defect increased by two, bringing the new total to 29. [More]
Deaths Tied To Defective Ignition Switch Now Double GM’s Earliest Reports
By 10.13.14
Just two months after the General Motors victim compensation plan began accepting death claims related to the decades-long ignition switch defect the toll has doubled what the car manufacturers initially acknowledged publicly. [More]
A Brief History Of Car Colors — And Why Are We So Boring Now?
By 10.10.14
You don’t know their names, but you see them everywhere: countless shades of reds, greens, blues, grays, tans, taupes, whites, off-whites, charcoals, blacks, gold and silver. Really what you’re seeing is Vanilla Shake, Tahitian Pearl and Torched Penny. Cars are everywhere, and so are the colors they’re cruising around in, their own distinctive skins. Paint is one of the most important design aspects parts of a car — the right paint job can mean the difference between luxury and sport utility, can turn Grandpa’s jalopy into a teen dream machine, and forever change a car from a vehicle you use to get around to a statement on free love and drugs. [More]
GM Looks For Creative Ways To Cajole Owners To Repair Defective Ignition Switches
By 10.7.14
Consumers don’t appear to be flocking to their local General Motors dealer to fix vehicles that may have a deadly ignition switch defect. With fewer than half of the two million cars involved in the recall fixed, officials with the car manufacturer are trying to reach affected owners anyway they can – including going to their homes. [More]
General Motors Issues Bonus Recall Of 57,182 Vehicles
By 10.6.14
On Friday, General Motors recalled 524,000 vehicles due to defects that could cause crashes if they manifested themselves while you’re driving on the highway. The GM recall-announcing team pulled a weekend shift and announced an additional recall of more than 57,000 vehicles. Models included in this recall are the Pontiac G8, Chevrolet Caprice police cruisers, Cadillac CTS-Vs, and Chevrolet Sonics. [More]
GM Recalls Yet Another Half-Million Cars Over Increased Crash Risks
By 10.3.14
It’s the track on infinite repeat this year, it seems: General Motors has issued a recall of 524,000 vehicles for safety reasons. The two separate recall actions have nothing to do with ignition switches, at least, but both — on Cadillac and Saab SUVs and Chevy Spark cars — are hazards that increase the risk of a dangerous crash. [More]
GM Ignition Recall Death Toll Increases Again, 23 Deaths Now Linked To Defective Switches
By 9.29.14
It may take months or even years before we realize the full scope of devastation caused by the defective ignition switches in General Motors vehicles. But each week the picture becomes a bit clearer. This week, the overseer of the independent compensation fund announced that two more deaths were the direct result of the defect that went ignored for more than a decade. [More]
Watchdog Says Treasury Dept. Once Again Overpaid GM Execs
By 9.24.14
Under the guidelines for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which invested billions of taxpayer dollars in bailing out the nation’s banks and carmakers, executive pay is supposed to kept to reasonable levels. In the case of General Motors, it pledged to cap salaries at $500,000; not bad for a company that allowed nearly two dozen people to die rather than fix an ignition switch. But the TARP watchdog says that once again the Treasury Dept. has allowed GM to pay execs more than it agreed to. [More]
21 Deaths Now Tied To GM Ignition Defect
By 9.22.14
The number of deaths tied to defective ignition switches in General Motors vehicles continues to increase. A week after the overseer of the independent compensation fund revealed that the death toll had swollen to 19 from the original 13 that GM had previously admitted, comes news of additional fatalities linked to the defect that went ignored for more than a decade. [More]
GM Recalls 220,000 Cadillacs And Impalas Over Potential Brake Fires
By 9.22.14
Less than two weeks ago General Motor’s CEO Mary Barra said the company was kinda, sorta, almost done with all those recalls. Good thing she wasn’t definitive, because the car manufacturer recalled more than 220,000 vehicles this weekend for potential fire risks. [More]
Can’t Make It Up: GM Recalls Vans For Explosion Risk, Fiat Recalls Cars For Leg Airbag Irregularities
By 9.18.14
The only time I want to see a car blow up is in an action movie where it’s filled with bad guys. I don’t want to see a van driving down the highway burst into flames because of a natural gas leak. That’s probably why General Motors issued yet another recall Thursday, just a few hours after Fiat Chrysler announced the recall of several thousand cars because of an issue with leg airbags. [More]
Report Finds NHTSA Failed To Detect GM Ignition Switch Issue For Seven Years Despite Ample Information
By 9.16.14
By definition, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is tasked with preventing crashes and achieving the highest standards of excellence in motor vehicle and highway safety. Yet, according to a new House committee report, the agency failed for years to identify a safety issue in General Motors vehicles that eventually lead to 19 deaths, if not more. [More]
GM Confirms At Least 19 Deaths Now Tied To Ignition Switch Defect
By 9.15.14
Despite receiving more than 100 death claims tied to General Motor’s deadly ignition switch defect, officials tasked with investigating the claims on behalf of the company’s Ignition Switch Compensation Fund say only 19 deaths claims have been approved to receive payments; that’s just six more than the company originally identified and far fewer than other reports have tied to the issue. [More]
General Motors Doesn’t Recall Corvettes, Stops Shipments And Sales Instead
By 9.12.14
Remember how General Motors promised that it is totally done with recalling cars? Well, strictly speaking that’s true, because the company is not recalling any 2015 Corvettes. They’re stopping shipments and sales of cars that are currently on dealer lots, because there may be problems with their parking brakes and airbags. There are 2,800 ‘vettes that may have problems with their airbags, and 800 that may have problems with their parking brakes. [More]
GM Official Says They’re Kinda, Sorta, Almost Probably Done Recalling Cars
By 9.11.14
Over the past nine months General Motors has recalled nearly 30 million vehicles for one reason or another, and it doesn’t sound like the car manufacturer is quite done. [More]
