General Motors Co. (GM), already grappling with the recall of 2.59 million cars to fix a defective ignition switch linked to at least 13 deaths, announced an additional 2.7 million vehicles that need to be called back to be fixed for a range of faults. The largest recall involves 2004-2012 Chevrolet Malibu, 2004-2007 Chevrolet Malibu Maxx, 2005-2010 Pontiac G6 and 2007-2010 Saturn Auras model cars in the U.S. to modify the brake lamp wiring harness, Detroit-based GM said today in an e-mailed statement.
Customer safety is at the heart of how GM designs and produces vehicles, and these announcements are examples of two ways we are putting that into practice, Jeff Boyer, vice president of GM Global Vehicle Safety, said in the statement.Congress, federal regulators and the U.S. Justice Department are all looking into why it took the automaker more than a decade to recall 2.59 million cars with switches that allowed keys to slip out of the on position, shutting off the engine and disabling air bags. GM has now recalled about 11 million cars this year, according to GM and data from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. GM's actions are putting the industry on track to recall the most vehicles since 31 million in 2004 and 22 million last year. Industry-wide recalls were 17.2 million for the year so far on May 13, according to NHTSA records. Boyer, named vice president for vehicle safety in March is part of a newly aligned... Read More As part of her response to the recall crisis, Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra named Boyer vice president for vehicle safety in March and hes part of a newly aligned engineering department aimed at reducing compartmentalization and catching future safety issues. Executive Changes John Calabrese, vice president of global vehicle engineering, is retiring and his department is being split into two parts with new executives overseeing the units. As part of the changes, Boyers safety team has been given about 35 new product investigators to speed up reviews of potential issues. Barra has tasked Jenner & Block LLC Chairman Anton Valukas, who served as a Justice Department-appointed examiner of the downfall of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., to help lead the automakers internal probe of the recall along with GM General Counsel Michael Millikin. Shes also asked for a review by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, who determined compensation for survivors of the Sept. 11 and Boston Marathon terrorist attacks, to work on what GM should do for victims of the crashes. Since becoming CEO in January, Barra has named a new head of human resources and placed Bob Ferguson, head of Cadillac, in charge of public policy as well. GM's top spokesman, Selim Bingol, left last month. The company has said it had put two engineers on paid leave for their roles leading up to the recall. The engineers are Ray DeGiorgio and Gary Altman, according to two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified commenting on a personnel matter. Have you been involved in an accident that may have been caused by a defective GM vehicle? At the law offices of O'Connor, Acciani and Levy, our auto accident legal team are currently accepting inquiries from those that may have been affected by this recall and welcome you to contact us today at (877) 288-3241 to allow us to review the details of your incident.
