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GM, safety agency face Congress over recalls
GM CEO Congressional Testimony
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Written Testimony of General Motors Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra Before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations “The GM Ignition Switch Recall: Why Did It Take So Long?”
Committee on Energy and Commerce memo about GM Recall
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Memorandum regarding the April 1, 2014 hearing to discuss the GM ignition switch recall.
Associated Press
DETROIT
The head of the nation’s auto-safety watchdog is blaming General Motors for a failure to act sooner to warn consumers of a defect in small cars that is linked to 13 deaths.
For its part, GM continues its efforts to show regulators and consumers that it’s more focused on safety, announcing the recall of an additional 1.3 million vehicles Monday.
In written testimony released ahead of today’s House subcommittee hearing, acting National Highway Traffic Safety Administration chief David Friedman says GM had information connecting defective ignition switches to the nondeployment of air bags but didn’t share it until last month.
GM CEO Mary Barra also will testify. Committee members will press Barra and Friedman to explain why neither the company nor the safety agency moved to recall millions of small cars with a defective ignition switch, even though GM knew of the problem as early as 2001.
“Sitting here today, I cannot tell you why it took years for a safety defect to be announced in [the small car] program, but I can tell you that we will find out,” Barra said in prepared testimony submitted to the subcommittee.
GM has recalled 2.6 million cars for the faulty switch. That recall prompted GM to name a new safety chief and review its recall processes.
With Monday’s recall, GM has now recalled 6.3 million vehicles since February. GM estimates the actions will cost it $750 million.
The House hearing — and a separate one Wednesday before a Senate subcommittee — likely will be tense and emotional. At least a dozen family members of victims will attend.
Here are some questions lawmakers are likely to ask Barra and Friedman:
GM
Q. Why did it take so long to recall these vehicles?
GM’s own time line, provided to the government, indicates that it knew as early as 2001 that there were problems with the ignition switch in the Saturn Ion. That switch later was used in the Cobalt and other cars. GM eventually learned of accidents and fatalities linked to the switch, and conducted multiple reviews. Yet the cars were recalled only this year. Barra will need to explain why GM didn’t act sooner.
Q. Why was a proposed fix never implemented?
According to a time line prepared by the House subcommittee, GM engineers developed a fix for the switch in 2004, but it was canceled in 2005 because of its long lead time and cost. Engineers also devised a new key design that would prevent the key from falling out of the ignition, which caused the engine to stall. The fix was approved but later canceled. Lawmakers will want to know why, and who was involved. Barra may not be willing to name names at this point. She has said she only learned of the problem last December, shortly after being named CEO.
Q. Shouldn’t GM tell owners to stop driving the cars until they are fixed?
GM insists that the cars are safe as long as owners remove anything extra from their key chains, to avoid weighing down the ignition switch. And dealers have permission to give loaner cars to concerned customers until GM can fix their cars. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who sits on the Senate subcommittee, is among those calling for GM to tell owners to stop driving their cars immediately.
NHTSA
Q. Why didn’t NHTSA open an investigation, which is often the first step toward a recall?
As early as 2005, the agency had numerous consumer complaints, service bulletins GM sent to dealers describing the ignition problems and data from a fatal crash in Maryland. And in late 2007, one official recommended investigating reports that air bags in the cars weren’t deploying. An agency panel decided against that because it said a trend wasn’t evident.
Q. Did NHTSA get enough information from GM?
In his remarks, Friedman says the agency would have ordered the recall if it had the information GM provided only recently. But safety experts say there was other available information at the time that warranted a recall.
Q. Does NHTSA have the staff and expertise to deal with the volume of data it’s getting?
After the Ford-Firestone tire recall in the late 1990s, Congress required automakers to report more information to the government about possible defects. NHTSA also gets more than 40,000 complaints per year from drivers. Lawmakers want to know if the agency has the resources to do its job.