Customers suing General Motors over the recall of vehicles with faulty ignition switches linked to 13 deaths want a U.S. District judge to order the automaker to issue a “park it” order for the affected vehicles until they can be repaired, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Today, U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos in Corpus Christi, Tex. will consider whether or not the automaker should issue what the complainants are calling a “fail safe solution” to prevent more accidents until all the switches can be replaced. The request for a park-it order was made as part of a class-action lawsuit seeking $10 billion for the lost value of the affected small vehicles recalled this year.
The lawsuit is just one of many the automaker is facing in a multitude of states, including Michigan and California. It is also facing lawsuits in regards to other injuries and deaths while it attempts to address criticism it knew of the defect since as early as 2001 and failed to correct it due to cost-saving measures.
This week, CEO Mary Barra met at GMs offices in Washington with the families of the accident victims, apologizing personally and as CEO and listening to each of their stories of loss. When asked by the families at the meeting about the possibility of a park-it order, Barra said the cars can be driven safely, Bob Hilliard, an attorney for plaintiffs in two lawsuits against GM told Bloomberg in an interview.
In the Corpus Christi case, two plaintiffs who own a 2006 Cobalt sued GM on March 14 for allegedly concealing the ignition defects, subsequently reducing the car’s resale value because the key can be jostled or moved out of position. The plaintiffs claim that while GM works on fixing the vehicles “additional incidents of ignition switch failures will certainly occur,” and that “injuries and fatalities are the inevitable consequence of such additional accidents.”
Comments
Did I read 10 billion?!
All these people (judges, politicians) want is GM to pay all the bailout money. They don’t care about the families.
And they want a ‘park it’ order (just to show everyone they’re doing something). You don’t need a park it order since it’s a very bad problem.
This recall is blown so far out of proportion its sad. You see people never said these cars where unsafe to drive for the 10 years they where on the road before? If it’s so unsafe it needs to be parked, someone else would have realized this long ago. The car’s are not death traps, The odds of it happening to you are so slim. The whole questioning yesterday was a joke, I found it halarious when the government actually tried to lecture Bara on work ethic, can you believe that? the government wants to look like they’re the hero and that GM can’t handle the issue, which GM has been doing a very good job with the recalls. No one’s talking about the 1 million nissan’s recalled who’s airbags wont deploy.
TLDR: The recall is blown way out of proportion, the government is hypocritical and the questioning was all politicized.
This class action stuff is such BS. And the lawyers are just going to line their pockets and the people they claim to represent will get a free oil change if they are lucky.
Just to keep it real and in perspective.
https://autos.yahoo.com/news/remember-other-bad-recalls-putting-chevy-historical-context-190037788.html
Funny how the same politicians giving Ms. Barra a hard time with their ridiculous questions and personal opinions regarding GM’s business practices, are the same goons in 2012 election cycle who were out there patting themselves on the back for the bailout and proclaiming “Osama’s Dead and GM lives”.
I am not much for conspiracy theories, but this witch hunt reeks of the same garbage that happened to Toyota with the throttle sticking issue. I am no fan of Toyota, but I always thought it was strange that at the same time our tax dollars were bailing out GM and Chrysler, Toyota was being put through the ringer. Now I’m starting to think since GM did not return a profit to the government that this is their way to get retribution.