Amid probes from legislators, regulators, lawyers and criminal investigators into how General Motors managed to get away with allowing more than a million vehicles to hit the road with defective ignition switches tied to at least 13 deaths, the car maker has finally begun shipping out kits to its dealerships so they can start fixing the problem.

The Wall Street Journal reports that GM has already sent out thousands of kits containing ignition switches, ignition cylinders and key sets to replace the defective switch that the car company had known about since 2001 — before the first of the recalled vehicles hit the road — but did nothing to fix until issuing the recall earlier this year.

Additionally, GM says it has mailed letters to the approximately 1.4 million owners of the various vehicles built before 2008 that had the defective switch installed from the get-go. The notices instruct the owners to contact a GM dealer to schedule the necessary repairs.

There is a second group about about 1 million owners who were later added to the recall because their vehicles might have the defective switch. GM failed to change the part number when it had the bad switch upgraded in 2007, meaning some of the defective parts may have been unwittingly used instead of the newer, safer switches.

Owners these vehicles will receive a letter in early May providing them with more information about whether or not they need to have their vehicles repaired.

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