AP: How GM's ignition switch redesign went wrong

[Omaha Steve]

Last edited Tue Jul 8, 2014, 08:46 AM - Edit history (1)

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140707/us--general_motors-cheap_switches-0483188bda.html

Jul 7, 3:39 PM (ET)

By TOM KRISHER

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors' deadly ignition switch flaws emerged from an effort to improve its cars.

As the company began developing new small cars in the late 1990s, it listened to customers who complained about "cheap-feeling" switches that required too much effort to turn. GM set about making switches that would work more smoothly and give drivers the impression that they were better designed, a GM switch engineer testified in a lawsuit deposition in the spring of 2013.

The switches, though, were too loose, touching off events that led to at least 13 deaths, more than 50 crashes and a raft of legal trouble for the Detroit automaker.


FILE - In this April 1, 2014 file photo, Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., ranking member of the House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, holds up a GM ignition switch while she questions General Motors CEO Mary Barra on Capitol Hill in Washington. Responding to complaints about "cheap-feeling" switches that required too much effort to turn, General Motors set about making new ones that would work more smoothly and give drivers the impression that they were better designed, a GM switch engineer testified in a lawsuit deposition in the spring of 2013. The switches, though, were too loose, touching off events that led to at least 13 deaths, more than 50 crashes and a raft of legal trouble for the Detroit automaker. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)


Former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas, hired by GM in March to investigate the switch problems, told a congressional subcommittee last month that GM wanted each small-car ignition to "feel like it was a European sports car or something." After years of lagging behind the Japanese, GM was eager to make better, more competitive small cars.

FULL story at link.

[onehandle]

1. My Camaro is recalled and yet after 34,000 miles I'm not dead.

Must drive harder.

[Omaha Steve]

2. The ignition stuck in the "ON" position on my 09 Cobalt

I couldn't turn it off. It was under warranty. I suspected at that time there was a problem, They knew it was a cobalt before I told them what kind of car it was.