2014 was a record-setting year in an enormous variety of ways, both good and bad. As we wrap up and head into 2015, here’s a look at what happened, and what we learned, in the 2014 that was. [More]
GM
General Motors Recalls 316,000 Vehicles For Potential Headlight Failures
By 12.2.14
Imagine driving down a dark country road where there’s some traffic in the other direction, so you don’t have your high beams on. Suddenly, your headlights cut out. Wait! What? That’s the scenario posed in the latest General Motors recall, which concerns 317,357 vehicles sold in North America with model years between 2006 and 2008. [More]
If You Have A GM Car Recalled For Ignition Problem, Now Is The Time To Get It Fixed
By 12.2.14
It’s been many months since General Motors finally got around to recalling more than 2 million vehicles for a problem with the ignition switch that has been tied to dozens of deaths. Many recalled cars have yet to be fixed because there weren’t enough parts to make the repairs, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says sufficient replacement switches are now available so there is no reason to wait any longer. [More]
GM Knew 2003 Death Was Tied To Ignition Problem, Didn’t Tell Family
By 11.11.14
Back in 2003, a woman died in a car crash after the airbag in her Saturn Ion failed to deploy. In 2004, GM denied an insurance claim related to the incident. That was the last the woman’s family would hear from the carmaker for 10 years, even though its own lawyers had included her in the 13 deaths it initially acknowledged were tied to a faulty ignition switch. [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: This Is Awkward, But Those Corvette Valet Cams Might Be Illegal
By 9.29.14
Having an extra pair of eyes and ears to keep watch over your expensive ride might sound like a wonderful idea, but GM is now warning owners of its new Corvette that those valet nanny cams might be illegal, depending on where you live. [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]
GM Ignition Switch Compensation Fund Received Claims For 107 Deaths In Less Than A Month
By 8.27.14
Less than a month after General Motors’ victim compensation plan began accepting claims, the company has received notice of 107 deaths possibly related to its ongoing ignition switch defect. That figure far surpasses the 13 deaths the company previously acknowledged and the 74 deaths one report found could be tied to the defect. [More]
Woman Sues GM Over Claims That Car’s Seat Heater Left Her With Third-Degree Burn
By 8.18.14
A 26-year-old Maine woman is suing General Motors after she claims a seat heater in one of its vehicles burned her so badly that she had to get a skin graft and was bedridden for months while she healed. [More]
GM Advising Owners Of 182K Recalled SUVs To Park Outside Until Fire Hazard Fixed
By 8.8.14
Back on June 30, General Motors issued six separate recalls totaling more than 7.5 million vehicles in just the U.S. One of those recalls involved around 182,000 SUVs that were at risk for a fire because of overheating power window switches. It was the third time that GM had recalled these particular vehicles for this problem and it still isn’t fixed. Now the car maker is notifying owners to keep affected SUVs parked outside until the defect is repaired. [More]
Rental Car Companies Asked GM To Look Into Ignition-Related Crashes Years Before Recall
By 7.31.14
It’s becoming harder and harder for GM execs to claim that the company was largely unaware of the problems with the Chevy Cobalt and other vehicles with an ignition problem that has resulted in at least 13 deaths, dozens of accidents and the long-delayed recall of millions of cars. A new report shows that car rental companies have been telling GM to look into the issue since at least 2005. [More]
Recording Industry Sues Ford, GM Over “CD-Ripping” Vehicles
By 7.29.14
While it’s usually perfectly legal for you to put the music you buy on a hard drive for your own use, the makers of the technology that rip your CDs into MP3s (or other formats) may be breaking the law if they don’t pay the recording industry piper. That’s why two of the country’s largest automakers are currently being sued by a music business royalties group. [More]
Former GM CEO Thinks Congress Would Have Gone Easier On Him Over Ignition Recalls
By 7.28.14
In the short time that she’s been CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra has repeatedly been called before federal lawmakers and investigators to answer for the car company’s record-shattering recalls, including the ignition-related problems that went ignored for more than a decade. But her predecessor at the GM CEO gig says he probably wouldn’t have received such tough interrogations from Congress. [More]
GM Expects To Pay Upwards Of $600 Million To Victims Of Ignition Switch Defect
By 7.24.14
Last month General Motors detailed its plan to compensate victims of crashes resulting from the long-ignored ignition defect, saying individual payouts could range anywhere from around $20,000 to the double-digit millions. Today, the car maker revealed how much it expects to pay in total when all this compensating is done. [More]
GM Recalls Another 718,000 Vehicles, Including Your Bitchin’ Camaro
By 7.23.14
Not to be outdone by Chrysler’s recent recall-a-thon, GM has announced six new safety recalls covering more than a dozen models, for a grand total of 717,949 vehicles. [More]
Now Chrysler Is Recalling 800K Jeep SUVs For Ignition Problems
By 7.22.14
The faulty ignition flu of 2014 is spreading among the car makers of greater Detroit. Months after General Motors began recalling millions of vehicles for defective ignitions that resulted in at least 13 deaths, and a month after NHTSA began looking into possible similar problems at Chrysler, the company has announced a recall of around 800,000 Jeeps to fix ignition switches that might turn off inadvertently. [More]
GM Admits Some Employees “Didn’t Do Their Jobs” Handling Ignition-Switch Defect
By 7.16.14
GM executives will be back in the hot seat on Capitol Hill tomorrow. This time, they’ll be getting a grilling from the Senate Commerce Committee about the ignition switch defect that killed at least 13 people and the decade it took to publicly identify the problem and issue a recall. [More]
