— In a year full of cover-ups and colossal mistakes, this has to be GM’s most cringe-worthy move.
According to a report from Reuters, GM mailed out recall notices to families who lost loved ones in ignition switch defect related crashes, in some cases nine years after the accident. This happened despite most of these cars having been destroyed.
One grieving family received multiple recall notices even though they had moved to a new state to escape the pain of losing their 16-year old daughter in a Cobalt crash. I’ll let that sink in for a moment.
The defective ignition switches have been directly linked to at least 13 fatalities. Surely, those 13 VINs must be on file – would it have been so hard to do a simple check before sending out those giant slaps to the face of recovering families? Apparently so. GM’s response to this fiasco:
“We are deeply sorry to those families who received a recall notice,” said GM spokesman Greg Martin
Ugh.
Death Toll Rises
As mentioned, the defective ignition switches have been directly linked to 13 fatalities, although an analysis by Reuters showed the number of fatalities could be as high as 74. A previous report from the Center for Auto Safety said the number of fatalities could top 303.
Sales Not Affected
While GM tries to bail itself out of another self-inflicted mess, safety advocates are shaking their heads after learning sales of GM vehicles are up 13 percent and commercial fleet sales are up 21 percent.
Although the automaker admits to waiting 10 years to recall millions of cars with a known safety defect, GM said the month of May saw the best total sale of vehicles since August, 2008.
GM cars involved in the recalls
- 2003-2007 Saturn Ion
- 2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalt
- 2006-2010 Pontiac Solstice
- 2007-2010 Pontiac G5
- 2007-2010 Saturn Sky
- 2006-2011 Chevrolet HHR