GM Places New Found Focus On Accountability Post-Ignition Switch Scandal
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General Motors says it has placed a new-found focus on fixing potential problems with parts and its vehicles in the years following its ignition switch scandal.
Speaking to The Detroit Free Press, Maryann Combs, GM’s vice president for global vehicle safety, said the automaker now places an emphasis on responsibility and encourages all employees to speak up if they notice issues along the production line or thereafter.
“Openness and accountability are two things that are very different at GM now,” Combs told the Free Press. “Everyone is encouraged to speak up on safety issues. They’ll be followed up on and we’ll take action.”
Combs explained that GM now teaches new employees about the ignition switch scandal so the company can learn from its past mistakes and ensure the same mistakes aren’t repeated.
“Every day we make our safety processes better, but we don’t want people to ever forget (the ignition switch scandal), and if you’re new, you learn about it,” Combs added.
After resolving the 2014 case against it with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission toward the end of 2017 and committed to implementing company-wide changes in a press released issued shortly after the case was closed.
“In the months immediately following the ignition switch recall, GM reorganized its vehicle engineering teams for greater transparency, urgency and accountability,” the statement said. “This included creating a new global vehicle safety organization that is focused on executing zero-defect safety systems for vehicles and customers.”
In addition to implementing the new safety organization, which includes a data analysis team and a re-engineered field investigation process, the statement said the company would create a ‘Speak Up For Safety’ program that will provide “all employees and suppliers an opportunity to report or suggest any potential safety related items.” This has resulted in numerous recalls so far, with problems noticed by employees resulting in safety recalls for the 2010 Chevrolet Impala and a separate one for 2009-2010 Impala.
“It speaks to the culture that (GM employees) are not afraid to put their name on there and say I’m proud to tell you about a safety problem,” Combs told the Free Press. “It’s a true cultural shift from the line worker to the dealers.”
Source: The Detroit Free Press
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So its a culture change when related to safety only.
Well I guess that’s better than no change.
I would have loved to hear GM has a culture change to fix all the parts they know to be faulty.
I thought that was what a quality system did in the auto manufacturing process.
When you relies a part is faulty, it is replaced.
Actions will again speak louder than words.
You have little clue how bad it was and how far they have come.
There is still much work to do. Culture issues were very deep and they were of a nature that they could not be corrected short term.
There is still some inside clinging to the old ways.
Again Scott3,
Why must you start with a personal insult ?
How do you know I have no clue ?
You know absolutely nothing, again nothing about me.
Old ways, this is not and was not the old ways.
This culture is the Boomer ways, culture !!
When GM was started a spade was a spade, you could walk into a GM dealer and get an answer to a question about your GM vehicle.
If going to the dealership could not find the answer you could call GM, get a person on the phone who knew something about a vehicle to answer your question.
Now when you go to a dealership or call GM with a question, its like a coverup from the start, nobody knows anything, everyone has to check with another person, or department.
Its a joke.
And you and people like you make it bad or worse !!!!!
How, do you make it worse you might ask, well thanks for asking !!!!
You and people like you are excuse makers, blamers, kick the can down the road, people.
Like —— its better now, because, it was worse.
Like ——– the 8 speed troubles are the customers fault, because, they are winey people who don’t want there vehicle to drive correctly !!!
Like —- those wheels on the Corvettes just break , because the roads are bad.
Like —— those Cadillac CUE screens delaminate , because, I still don’t know your excuse on that one, maybe , because it gets hot in the summer.
If you and people like you don’t quit blaming someone else and making excuses for GM, how, how, how, is that culture ever going to change.
Seriously, just look at the 8 speed, again, GM is trying to tell tens of thousands of vehicle owners, that this is the way your transmission was supposed to work all along, and all those other vehicles you have owned over the years were shifting wrong.
How asinine is that excuse, who ever first said that and it was then the answer to give to a customer, should have been stopped.
You really think GM after themselves making vehicles for over 100 years, with millions and millions of customers driving them, that the customer does not know how an automatic transmission is supposed to shift.
And these class action lawsuits, in my opinion it is received positively by GM, its cheaper for then to have another entity pay the customer than fix the troubles. lemon laws, insurance companies, lawyers, etc.
GM should quit talking and start taking care of business, blaming someone else, and making someone else pay for your mistakes, just costs you in the end !!!!!
And on a positive note, just for you ,
I have just under 1000 miles on my new 2020 HD Denali, and love, love it.
So far its a great truck, and o so much better than my 2017 HD Denali, in almost every way !!!!!
And I haven’t received any recalls yet, no letters of satisfaction ( screw ups ), and haven’t had to go back to the dealer.
Its great, just great.
As soon as I saw the title of this article I knew (100%) what I would find in the comments.
lifelongGMmoaner
You question
“So its a culture change when related to safety only.”
Then you answer your own question
“I have just under 1000 miles (no where near enough for a true evaluation) on my new 2020 HD Denali, and love, love it.
So far its a great truck, and o so much better than my 2017 HD Denali, in almost every way !!!!!
And I haven’t received any recalls yet, no letters of satisfaction ( screw ups ), and haven’t had to go back to the dealer.”
Good luck with your new GM vehicle(s) since you won’t stop buying them (maybe your the problem, not Scott) I hope the inevitable (according to you) never happens. It would give the rest of us some relief.
I’m impressed, you ended with a positive and that’s great, just great!
Well fastyle,
At least you know what I am going to say, just like I know what you and scott3 are going to say !!
I don’t know anything about you ! as you do not me !
But like my read, your read is GM is always right and great !!
Mine is based on my experiences, I’m not sure what you drive, nor do I care.
But I do not call you and scott3 or anyone else a loser, moaner, whiner, complainer or anything else personal.
I get the feeling you guys are trying to compensate for something, anyway you should know by now what you or anyone else says means nothing to me.
Like GM, words are plentiful in the world today, yet actions and accomplishments are few !!
So you keep talking, and I will do the same.
I know 1000 miles are not enough miles yet to review a vehicle, but after 140,000 miles on my 2007 Silverado, I can tell you that my 2017 HD Denali was junk with 15,000 miles.
The 2017 was at the dealership more in 3 years and 15,000 miles than the 2007 was in 10 years and 140,000+ miles.
You see how experience works !!!
What do you mean ” what I think is the inevitable “, you see I do not think anything is inevitable !!
Everything is preventable !!
One more time, until the last 3 GM vehicles, in 39 years I was just like you guys, GM was a great vehicle company, zero troubles, very few trips to GM dealerships and was always taken care of politely.
But I will not let GM slide on the last three junk, cheap, vehicles.
Like the dash in my new truck, its just cheap looking, underwhelming, and disappointing !!!
My comment above had substance, I talked about real GM troubles well known today.
Your comments above talked about me, and had nothing to do with the topic at hand !!
I don’t get it !!!
“What do you mean ” what I think is the inevitable “ ” Your going to continue to buy GM products and complain about them on GMA, go buy a Ford or Ram, we’ll be here when you get back.
do you (I) work for GM ? Nope!
you see I do not think anything is inevitable !!
Everything is preventable !! Well then how do we get you to,,,
Where was I…?♂️
fastyle,
I will continue to point out the GM issues until once again I do not have any !
Like I have said time and time again, I never said one word in the last 39 years before the last three vehicles.
And I also would like to point out all three of the last three vehicles do not exist in the GM lineup in the same state I own or owned( as I got rid of one of the cheap crap GM vehicles so far ).
Coincidence ? I bet not !!!!!!!!!!!
I do also believe the newer stuff is leaps and bounds better than the two we still currently own, except for the cheap interior designs.
The new 2.0T is better, I will never own one in a Cadillac again, but I think it is better !
Even the new 3.6 I bet the timing chain doesn’t fail at 70,000 miles like the ones we own !!
The 10 speed transmission so far seems better than the 8 speed junk !
The 9 speed transmission seems better than the 8 speed junk !
The new cylinder deactivation seem better than the old one !
The screens are no longer laminated to cheap plastic as the CUE was !!! Want me to keep going ? I can you know !!! There are many more !!!! All very well known failures !!!
Remember design looks are subjective, I just say weather I like the design or not, nothing customer support can do for that.
But the workings of the vehicle, known faulty parts, want me to list a few again ?
I will be pointing out the GM issues in that regard, as you should also !!
But like scott3, for some reason does not think GM has a transmission problem and has had his replaced, on a new truck !!!!!!
What kind of customer loves to spend $40,000 to $80,000 on a vehicle and then have the transmission replaced when new, how, how, how is this great, how ?
And what about all those still having troubles, loosing thousands more $$$$$, they should be happy also.
My wife’s CUE screen was good before lunch, after lunch delaminated, and we take impeccable care of our vehicles, and always have !!
As far as you wanting everyone driving GM junk to go buy a Ford, RAM, Audi, Mercedes, Lincoln, or KIA, think your wish mite be coming true.
However I will continue to drive GM until they no longer exist, and think Marry is doing a good job !!!
I just think she is fed $hit for information, do to flawed feedback programs, that are still linked to rewards to dealers and employees !!!!
Again if you incentivize positive results, ” completely satisfied” the majority of humans will figure out how to have ” completely satisfied ” results !
So in reality the next three could be a non comment ownership once again.
I hope so for your sake, I don’t think you can handle the truth that long, from your comments on me personally !!
“…if they notice issues along the production line or thereafter”… and what about the design & development phase? Because there is where it starts.
As Bob Lutz pointed out in his book Bean Counters VS Car Guy GM had a very flawed culture on so many levels. They did as much of more damage internally than any of their competitors.
There were bonus programs in place that if followed it would add cost and people would lose income or be punished for doing the right thing.
Other cases of even if they could do a job better they were not permitted to speak to management in how the could easily fix issues.
Lutz started the culture change and Barra has continued it but as Lutz pointed out there were still those in management that are still fighting the changes.
There is still work to do as Scott3 has pointed out.
The truth is GM was big enough for decades that these issues were not a problem till competition gained ground.
Add into this the way the legal system works today it can make honest companies difficult to deal with or down right forced into bad behavior as what ever they do or say can be used against them even in the act of trying to resolve issues. This is why we have so many warning labels and little candor from MFGs today.
I like this C8.R,
Like you said, until the competition gained ground.
You do know how this happened don’t you ?
That’s good enough !!!!!!!
GM, take my worthless advise, it is never good enough, and if it is , not for very long !!!!!!
Someone where I was reading suggested that all the GM development and bean counters should rotate drive the competition and never drive GM vehicles.
I somewhat agree, live in them, learn from them, see what is offered for the money.
That way GM might realize quicker when they are being surpassed !!!
The legal system excuse again, to me, is just yet another excuse !!!
In my opinion the reason we ( I ) have no candor for MFGs today is this :
We the customer are told what to buy, with our money.
Very few options to choose from, you get what is offered.
When something fails, and for sure if its something you did not want, and the MFGs, make excuses and place blame, this is why people are against them !!
Again I will take the 8 speed deal as an example.
When you can not get a 5.3 with a 10 speed, or a 6.2 – 10 speed in a lower cost truck, you are forced to buy a product you don’t want.
Then when the 8 speed is a crap one, and GM tells you, that is how it is supposed to be and you bought it, that is just wrong, wrong !!!!
People now today are trying to whatever possible to not, not get a GM 8 speed, but still want a GM vehicle, and GM is punishing them for trying to be loyalists by selling them ” well known junk “.
It is very, very, very, obvious, in the market place this transmission is junk, sure are there good ones, YES, however people do not want to take the chance of getting a bad one, and then get treated like $hit trying to get it to work ” properly ” ( you know properly like most automatic transmissions in the world today, again there are millions of examples even within GM of good working transmissions )
So what excuse is a good one ?
You see there is no , no, no excuse, that’s a good one !!
But I will bet you GM has people that sit around with lawyers often to make them up, and that is resources and capital that could and should be used to fix the problem !!
In my opinion
You agree with me but yet you disagree with Scott3 and Fastyle who my statement agrees with.
You really post many inaccurate facts and like Scott states have a lack of knowledge on how and why things are done inside automakers.
C8R,
would you please point out where fastyle or scott 3 have said,
GM had a very flawed culture on so many levels. They did as much of more damage internally than any of their competitors.
or
Other cases of even if they could do a job better they were not permitted to speak to management in how the could easily fix issues.
or
There were bonus programs in place that if followed it would add cost and people would lose income or be punished for doing the right thing
You see those are the things I agreed with you on !!
And I did point out I do not agree with you on the lawyer , ” excuse “, as it is just another excuse !!!
I also love it when all of you or anyone says things like ” you really post a lot of inaccurate facts ”
Really !!
I challenge any of you guys, or anyone at all to put any provable fact forth on anything you say !!!!
You see that statement is just what I am mainly talking about !!!
You cant get a straight answer of fact from anyone at GM, that is what I meant by, it all seems like a coverup to me at all times.
Like its none of your business to know what we have done or needs to be done to your vehicle that you own and have paid for !!
So again I have , I have, agreed with some of your comments, as I have with scott3 and fastyle at times !!
But I will never agree that GM is doing the right thing all the time, and all of their decisions are the best !!
Even in the past, I have had troubles with GM products, pre mature failures, and have not commented once, why you ask ? Because the dealer has treated us like humans, explained the issue and what they know !
But the last three, it all seems like a cover up, nobody knows anything.
And you really think I have lack of knowledge from the inside ?
Remember I worked on the inside for 15 years !!
Flown all over the US in private jets and talked to suppliers !
Been in talks of quality, recall, failures, ship it even though its not correct for the sake of $$$$$ !!
Why do you think I no longer do it, or want to do it !
I have first hand seen the poor or lack of design do to cost !!
But that’s not an excuse to me !!!
scott3, at times has said I don’t understand the cost involved, like with the EPA certifications, cost of material, cost of design,
My answer is, I agree, I agree, I agree, I have seen it, but, but, but, its an excuse !!!
Other manufacturers seem to be doing it, making quality products, standing behind them, and making money to stay in business !!!
So all of those excuses to me are just that, excuses !!
Like Mercedes says ” the best or nothing ”
If GM cant make a vehicle profitable and do the right thing when they know the parts designed are faulty, ” quit, quit the business, get out, quit ”
But stop it with the excuses, and blame !!
scott3 has told me to see the big picture, well you guys stand back and listen to what you are saying sometimes !!
GM a vehicle company for over 100 years, is trying to blame the 8 speed transmission troubles on the customer or the dealers, !!!!!!! how !!!!!!
The dealer did not design it, program it, install it, GM did.
And than to top it off You guys and GM are trying to tell or convince the customer, the customer who have owned several GM trucks, or vehicles over the years, that now, a transmission is really supposed to act like this POS !!!
It is just absurd, listen to yourselves !!!!!
Its ridiculous !!
O yeah, in my opinion !!
And my new 2020 HD is a great vehicle so far !!!
And I love the new C8 Vette, I think it is an awesome vehicle !!!
And I love the new Blackwing engine, think its great !!!
The new 10 speed GM transmission so far is smooth as silk !!
Love the front end look of the new XT6 Really the whole exterior !!
Love the look of the exterior of the CT5, all but the cheap non window in the C-pillar!!
I love the CT6 inside and out, with a 3.0TT or Blackwing !!!
Is that enough positive for you !!!
As soon as I saw the title of this article I knew (100%) what I would find in the comments.
lifelongGMmoaner
You question
“So its a culture change when related to safety only.”
Then you answer your own question
“I have just under 1000 miles (no where near enough for a true evaluation) on my new 2020 HD Denali, and love, love it.
So far its a great truck, and o so much better than my 2017 HD Denali, in almost every way !!!!!
And I haven’t received any recalls yet, no letters of satisfaction ( screw ups ), and haven’t had to go back to the dealer.”
Good luck with your new GM vehicle(s) since you won’t stop buying them (maybe your the problem, not Scott) I hope the inevitable (according to you) never happens. It would give the rest of us some relief.
I’m impressed, you ended with a positive and that’s great, just great!
Not sure how this second post happened, but it did. ?
Yep, do you work for GM ?
That sounds like something I have heard from them !!!
That never happens, it is the first time I have heard of that !!!
Yes it does happen, and it did !!
6.9B total cost of recalls, payouts, legal, all because some engineer figured the wrong spring pressure on an ignition switch. Now they want to go autonomous driving… yeah good luck with that.
Agree!
Google can’t keep up on the maps either.
OK C8.R,
You see, I once again agree with you !!
Not quite sure why you drug Google into the conversation ?
Question though an the Google thing, please point out a NAV system that works better, is easier to use, or more up to date, than Google maps, I need to try it out for myself.
Worked for GM in many capacities over the last 30 years, management and hourly. They may say this but the truth on the production floor is much different even still. Test it until it passed is SOP. As well as: “I don’t care if they’re bad, send it. We need the numbers.”
Yep
Been there, not at GM, but been there.
The ignition switch may have not really neen %100 of the issue ! If you ever notice the ridiculous amount of things attached to the key rings – i mean some hang down to the floor and prob weigh a good 1/2 lb or more – i was always taught only the ign and door lock keys should be in the switch ! The big 3 and imports all have had there share of safety recalls not just gm ! Anybody remember ford pinto and the cost to fix was $12 – but was cheaper to pay out wrongfull death suits !
My take, you are right and wrong, in my opinion.
An automaker is or should be always changing, improving !!
If the key switches don’t stay on do to the customer changing, the manufacturer needs to change, improve.
Look at all of the changes in the auto industry in 100 years.
How come we have power steering ?
How come we have power brakes ?
Want me to go on ?
If GM sat around and blamed the customer for wanting power steering they would not sell a vehicle !!
If GM said, its the customers fault for putting stuff on the customers key ring, they would not sell a vehicle.
You know what solves this, forward thinking, advancements, you know, nobody is hanging to much weight on a push button start !!
Again sitting back and not constantly improving, then blaming customers for failures is not great !!
In my opinion.
What a joke. Anyone who has actually worked for GM know this is not true. It is another policy that GM does not follow but puts in place to cover the asses of upper management.
To Maryann Combs, GM’s vice president for global vehicle safety. If you actually believe this crap then go down to the shop floor and talk to the people who actually work for a living. This does not happen on the shop floor. If you bring up issues like this, you are not a hero, you are labeled a complainer.
Example. I was told by many different supervisors to sign my name to production check and verification sheets that were never completed or incorrect. When I told them I would not sign my name to check sheets that were not correct or not done, I was threatened with disciplinary action by my boss. I told my boss to put that in writing. He told me “no way”. That is what happens on the shop floor.
After I finally got the area manager involved the problem was resolved. Now my boss is pissed at me because now he looks bad. Then the revenge game starts.
For those who never worked there, we are not a team. Too much time and effort is waisted covering your ass instead of getting the job done.
Management want to make sure someone is accountable for inevitable problems as long it is not themselves.
If your plant is UWA, take the grievance to them for accountability. Job harassment is not a safety issue, its federal and state laws. Just don’t think you need to kiss a$$ to the boss. All it means he is not doing his job and you did right by going over your immediate boss after there was no response or corrective action at that level. Keep notes, memo’s emails, etc for your case.
The bean counters continue to rule.
I know from whence I speak.
There will be another ignition switch type fiasco.