Just as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration deep dives into investigating General Motors for handling a recall affecting about 1.6 million cars due to what’s becoming the infamous ignition switch recall, General Motors seems to have found legal protection from possible lawsuits from consumers. The shield involves the “Old GM” and the “New GM” that emerged from the 2009 bankruptcy.
According to Automotive News, the company came to an agreement with state attorney generals and consumer groups during its restructuring that involves only being liable for vehicles it built from the time it left bankruptcy, around the July 2009 timeframe. This means that if parties are interested in suing GM for issues that took place with vehicles built before GM’s exit from bankruptcy, they would have to go after the “Old GM” in bankruptcy court. As of this writing, all attempts to legally pursue the new organization for pre-2009 liabilities have failed.
“It is true that new GM did not assume liability for claims arising from incidents or accidents occurring prior to July 2009,” told GM spokesperson Greg Martin to Automotive News.
Since the vehicles affected by the 1.6 million-car recall were manufactured between 2003 and 2007, GM’s responsibility to claims for vehicles built after 2009 greatly reduces the number of possible trials against the New GM. As it currently stands, the amount of incidents related to the ignition switch fault stands at 31 accidents and 13 deaths.
Whether or not this development will be relevant going forward, however, is an entirely different question — and we sincerely hope that this fact isn’t utilized by GM to remove liability from the vehicles it built, albeit as a different corporate entity. Instead, we hope that GM uses the situation as an opportunity to show America and the world its corporate responsibility ethos and newfound customer-driven way of doing business, to the extent that is appropriate.
Comments
It will not stop it all but it limit the effects.
GM just needs offer a free switch. An move on.
This if handled fast and proper will be forgotten in a year or less. If left to longer it will drag on.
If GM has any dignity at all, they would not go this route. If they want to make amends to this situation they should be willing to take the consequences head on and pay for these damages. People’s lives were lost due to this, and hiding under the mantra of old business practices will not suffice. Instead it’ll be viewed as a means of escape…..
We know GM is a much better company since being bailed out, and now’s the opportunity for them to prove that. Compensate for the lives lost GM……
You really have to take in and consider how the legal system works.
Even in a case if you crash into some one you should never say it is you fault. Too often this can be used in ways against you that can be devastating.
In case like this companies even if they want to be open but often they can not as with the legal system it opens the door to a sorts non legit issues.
Generally the deals are settled out of court with non disclosure agreements.
If there was a death GM is or pay for it and in some cases they pay in cases not of their doing as it cheaper to settle than fight.
Case in point here we had a local hit a tree drunk at 100 mph drunk. The driver burned to death. Now you hit any tree at 100 Mph odds are you will die or burn. GM tried to enter the driver was drunk and was stopped. GM settled for a undisclosed amount due to fighting and even winning would cost more.
Add to that if they should lose and details are disclosed it could damage the whole auto industry.
There is much more to this than just coming clean and paying. Most times victims families are well compensated as well as many who should not be compensated on some cases. Most mfg pay out more than you know and are at a disadvantage due to the lack of tort reform. It is a functional dis functional system.
It is a mess for all and in the end the consumer pays for both sides.
In the beginning I would have been content with a fixed car even after the fact but even after the news on the recall they said nothing yet it happened to my car and I kept my emails to their GM head office.I brought my car in back in September 2013 because my car had stopped twice while I was driving and both times I had my children in the car. It just stopped running and I coasted to the side started it back up. On these occasions I was on city roads but I do daily highway driving. I called GM and brought it into my local dealer and they said nothing about ignition didn’t address it at all. I would have been happy at the time if they had just fixed it but now I’m so very disappointed that profit was more important to them. I paid for them to look at my car and lie to me. It wasn’t until 5 months later while watching the news do I see that this is a known problem. I commute and it feels like a game of Russian roulette on my way to and from work. I’m extremely uncomfortable driving with my kids in the car but I have no choice. When asked if knowing that this has happened to my car could they expedite the part to fix my car the advice I got was to drive on the far right lane or borrow a car. WTF!! …Pardon the expression but this is far from right. I would have been content with a fixed car if they had just told me but now I’m in shock at the money I spent trying to get my car diagnosed even from other dealers when they knew what the problem was all along. And more then once and they continue to string me along. This is not right.
It sound more like a poor dealer to me.
You do not list the year of the car so I have assume it is out of warranty.
That being the case the dealer at lest should have reported a failed switch and given you an estimate of repair.
As for being afraid to drive the car? Get it fixed! GM if they have not yet will recall it and you will be refunded.
Even if you do not get refunded there is no need to keep driving in fear . We are not talking engine replacement money here.
If you had a bad tire or or a bad brake line you would repair would you not if you needed your car?
I would be more upset the dealer did not diagnose the car and give a estimate of repair.
Yes it’s under warranty the car is a 2005 Cobolt but I have to wait until they send letter at beginning of April. Second of course you pay for issues but at this point I work to survive and more then one job. Also they never checked for that issue when I brought it in despite the similarities and make and year of car and I’ve already paid for what they did do. Disposable income is not something I have if this was a known issue why not check that first. I’ve brought my car twice and they had no answers as to why my car did that it was only after news report and some research I recognized issue. I drive my car with myself in it and rarely with kids on highway. Yes just like feeding my children comes first so until my letter comes Scott I will Russian roulette it as spare money for a repair that will be compensated at a later date is something I do not have. I guess we all have different priorities. Food and shelter first for me. I only asked they checked for issue for free and repair it. I asked for nothing more!
Yes it’s under warranty the car is a 2005 Cobolt but I have to wait until they send letter at beginning of April. Second of course you pay for issues but at this point I work to survive and more then one job. Also they never checked for that issue when I brought it in despite the similarities and make and year of car and I’ve already paid for what they did do. Disposable income is not something I have if this was a known issue why not check that first. I’ve brought my car twice and they had no answers as to why my car did that it was only after news report and some research I recognized issue. I drive my car with myself in it and rarely with kids on highway. Yes just like feeding my children comes first so until my letter comes Scott I will Russian roulette it as spare money for a repair that will be compensated at a later date is something I do not have. I guess we all have different priorities. Food and shelter first for me. I only asked they checked for issue itself the second time and repair it for free if problem I was told I’d be charged from GM customer support but then could be refunded for money . Must be great having all that spare money kicking around :p I spoke with GM support before I brought car to dealer both times. I asked for nothing more! It’s ok though lesson learned by me and I’m sure GM is learning now 🙂
Anyone note the latest news. We went from 2 deaths to 13 deaths to 303 deaths now the reporting on that is flawed and now they say it is significantly less deaths now.
Just doing the math even at the inflated inaccurate number of 303 just take a look at the percentage of cars that were involved out of the 1.37M sold.
While any deaths are never acceptable the percentage of deaths here is much lower than many other cars in history that have has major issues.
I would like to see a more accurate accounting of the real number of deaths and it would be interesting to see just how these deaths happened.
I am sure GM made a mistake here in not dealing with this more aggressively but hind sight is 20/20. Even the government has checked into this several times and never could come up with a clear case of how large of an issue this was.
I think they all need to step back and just see just what the real numbers and real issues were and in the mean time GM should offer the fix to anyone who comes in.
Move on from there.
The fact is a ignition failure is not a thing that never happens. Over he years I have repaired a lot of them on many different makes of cars. Often the key chain was the issue. Even many owners manual will state to not load up the key chain.
This is like the Explorer deal where it was the perfect storm. In that case it was a high center of gravity vehicle like many others with a lower quality tires like most OE tires that often was run at too low pressure by the owner. Change any one of the issues and nothing happens. In this case it was a low quality switch that if it were not loaded down would not have failed and in many cases still did not fail. If one of the two issues were corrected nothing happens.
The next issue was the switch a GM design flaw or was it a Delphi issue? GM has already taken a steering column supplier to court for supply columns for the Delta platforms that they had to replace due to issues with them clunking back 10 years ago.
To be honest we may never know and this whole thing will pass.
I have an 08 HHR and I have no worries about the issue I keep the key chain to two keys on It and all my cars knowing this is an issue on any model and brand.
Compensating those that got hurt is a no-brainer, and GM will do that, without question.
The real problem are the evil lawyers who are trying to get rich off the injured of this ( or any other, e.g Toyota ) defect or incident. GM did not intentionally built a flaw into their cars, just like Toyota and all other manufacturers that ran into issues did not intend to. Creating a flaw is the risk that all who are working hard to contribute to the economy at the edge of achieving a tiny profit while managing a huge responsibility to pay all who contribute to the success of a large venture ( UAW, pensioners, suppliers, engineers, designers, dealers, bond holders who risk the capital,… ) have to deal with. And Rick Wagoner and the workers of GM tried very hard, and they would have made it if not for the Wall Street gamblers that ruined everything.
But the evil lawyers could not care less. The fact that the Cobalt was a very enjoyable car with very competitive features and quality at a price that was convincing to millions of buyers ( I had many rental days in Cobalts, and I loved every minute of it ), and the benefit that that car has brought to millions who bought it, and to the thousands who helped make it, does not matter to the evil lawyers. The injuries that were suffered by those who got hurt, also do not matter. They are just the excuse the evil lawyers use to extort billions ( just check what they did to Toyota ) from everybody who buys a car.
If there is one industry we should nationalize, for the good of all who want to produce goods and services that are beneficial to society, and for the benefit of society in general, it is the evil legal industry that steals billions of dollars from the hardworking people of this country. And that evil legal industry could not care less about the victims who got injured that they have to use and exploit to gain the billions that they desire.
GM is responsible to repair the switches and that’s it! You people like to use the law when it benefits them but call BS when it doesn’t!
The bankruptcy of 2009 clears GM for any litigation that is from prior to 2009 that’s old GM s problem anything after 2009 is new GM s problem!
See how this works? You have to follow all the laws and regulations not just the ones you want!
Please don’t be the moral police here, if you owed a ton of money and you found a way to get out of paying it legally you would do the same!
This is chess not checkers!
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