Boston, MA 03/05/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Taking reigns of a global automotive with a history of global auto-recalls on its track is much more than a piece of cake, even when you share over two decades of General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)’s history working at various levels in different roles. The Forbe’s 35th most powerful woman 2013 Mary Barra just learnt that lesson once again as her company’s reputation is at risk for wrongs of a predecessors’ era.
Last month General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) called back 700,000 cars of Chevrolet Cobalt, Pontica and G5 2005 editions over the ignition issues that killed 13 people in insinuated Car Crashes which is not sensible by the smart car’s crash-sensor algorithm. In her latest intranet post Mary explained why?
Why Cobalt / Pontica Ignitions Run Down
Heavier key chains cause jarring to the ignition switch make it “slip out of the run position”. That means there won’t be any power break, power steering when the car crashes. Oh and BTW, no air bag. The bags won’t deploy until the algorithm tells them so!
Victims and NHTSA Blame GM; Wilful Neglect
Lawyers of various Cobalt or Pontica car crash victims are pointing fingers towards the manufacturer’s willful negligence. As a proof they have a service bulletin post addressing dealer complaints as “there is potential for the driver to inadvertently turn off the ignition…… more likely to occur if driver is short and has a large and or heavy key chain”. That sounds much familiar to the CEO’s statement as we just quoted above.
Recalls are becoming an everyday matter for General Motors Company (NYSE:GM). Last year the company also recalled over 1.5 million cars from China over fuel pump issues that could hamper driver safety. However, Chevrolet is one model of this company whose name appears recurrently in all of these recalls.
Barra has announced she will be heading the internal probe into the reasons of a delayed recall and more importantly what led to the non-detection of the design faults in the final commercial product, in the first place.
Mary Looks At The Future
While apologizing for mistakes that occurred long before her reign began in the CEO office, Mary also reaffirmed employees that General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)’s reputation will only be at stake if it fails to identify the cause and come up with necessary process changes to avoid such design and engineering loopholes in future. Her statement also hinted on eth progress of regulator probe into the immoral practice of delayed recall of the killer cars. Mary herself is a graduate from the GM institute; she graduated in 1988.
