GM fined 35 million

[Jrichards73]

I owned one for 5 years and never had an issue.

[jd10013]

Originally Posted by gpskinzhut

They'll be fine. It'll hurt some but like Toyota with their 'unintended acceleration' issue (that they also denied and were slow to react to), they'll come through it. Remember the Ford Explorer / Firestone tire fiasco? The deaths related to that issue were farrrr more than this. I don't remember exactly who was at fault on that one, they were pointing fingers at each other.

plus, it will probably be 3 or 4 years before it's finished. and yea, I remember the firestone one, nearly put them out of business.

[jd10013]

Originally Posted by Austin45

The media rarely reports the full story of the deaths in the recall. The teenager in Wisconsin that died in a Cobalt crash back in 05 or 06 that has turned into the face for the recall, well she was doing 70 in a 35, not wearing a seat belt, oh and she was drunk. How is that GM's fault? How that family even has the audacity to file a lawsuit with the liability shield in place and their last lawsuit before the shield going nowhere is beyond me.

As far as sales goes so far the data suggest that it hasn't hurt at all. They'll be fine. Just have recall expenses and civil penalties to worry about.

and again, your missing the point. the primary arguments of the case are that the airbags deactivated when the key went to off. the other primary driver in it is that GM knew it was an issue, and choose to cover it up. they knew the ignition was prone to moving into the off position and that the airbags would go off when that happened. that's the crux of it. not how fast anybody was going, or if they were drunk. that's all irrelevant to weather or not there was a design flaw with the ignition.

but you are right, GM will be fine. this will probably end up costing them somewhere around 1.5 billion, but that's not enough to seriously hurt them. and because it happened awhile ago, I doubt people worry much about it when making a purchase.

[Frank in MD]

My understanding of this is GM knew there was a design flaw and neglected to take action to correct it, thus putting a vehicle on the road that they may have known to be unsafe.

The trouble with civil actions are that you still have to be able to establish that the injuries/deaths were preventable/survivable even if the safety systems acted correctly. In the end, I believe the actions will be settled out of court. It's my opinion that the people whom are suing GM are understandably angry but it doesn't change the fact that what they're really after is GM's money. Which sadly makes them no better in my humble opinion. Aren't they also putting a price on the life of their loved ones?

Toyota was hammered with a big fine but faced much less scorn than GM. The media does love to pile on GM, as do many people, some in this thread have already expressed the desire to see GM fail. Seeing GM go down will effect much more than crooked execs.... and to answer an earlier question, yes it will effect business. It already has, my sales are down by almost 50% YTD.

People like me are the ones who get hurt when GM ****s up. Keep that in mind, there are real people with real obligations and responsibilities tied to GM's success and/or failure. I'm not suggesting people ignore this sort of thing so that people can make a living, I'm suggesting that you consider what you're really advocating.

I am GM, I'm very proud of my brand. If you really are that upset and if you really feel that GM should go under and are building unsafe cars, then I'd fully expect you to sell or trade your car....?

Any takers?

[TxBandit911]

Also, none of this would be an issue if people would just learn how drive a vehicle. Doesn't matter if the air bags are shut off or not. Engine dies = Crash and die doesn't and never will make any sense...

If people were smart enough to operate the vehicles they own, no one would have even know about this crap...

[abaucom21]

Way back when I went to Sears in Houston and bought 4 new tires for my Eldo. Think they were Firestones. Two weeks later one of the tires exploded while I was at a stop light just after exiting the high speed roadway. If the tire had exploded, failed while I was on the expressway at 70 mph I could have lost control and crashed. Sears said I must have hit something and I said that was BS. I was so pissed I sent the damaged tire to the office of my congressman because that damn tire could have killed me. Months later the tire was recalled and more months later Sears sent me a check for the blown out tire.

How does the average driver know what to do when a faulty tire blows at high speed or a loss of power steering and power brakes. You only have an instant to react. Have you every tried to stop a car when power steering and or power brakes fail or had a high speed tire blow out. I have experienced all the above and let me clue you in even the most experienced driver might not be able to avoid a crash.

Also, none of this would be an issue if people would just learn how drive a vehicle... has to be one of the most ill informed comments I have seen posted on Camaro5 in the last two months.

[AZCamaroFan]

Originally Posted by Kleeeb

Am I the only one that thinks 35 million is chump change for a multi billion dollar company? I mean GM is the most prevalent car brand on the road...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

i'm glad they didn't fine them billions. that would just undo what the government just did bailing them out.

Originally Posted by Muscle Car Memories

Wasnt the Mustang, it was the Pinto.

Originally Posted by Drumminxx

It was both...they had gas tanks located close to the bumper. The pinto was the worse I think or more explosions...

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yes. the mustang was a pinto

[Muscle Car Memories]

Originally Posted by Frank in MD

My understanding of this is GM knew there was a design flaw and neglected to take action to correct it, thus putting a vehicle on the road that they may have known to be unsafe.

The trouble with civil actions are that you still have to be able to establish that the injuries/deaths were preventable/survivable even if the safety systems acted correctly. In the end, I believe the actions will be settled out of court. It's my opinion that the people whom are suing GM are understandably angry but it doesn't change the fact that what they're really after is GM's money. Which sadly makes them no better in my humble opinion. Aren't they also putting a price on the life of their loved ones?

Toyota was hammered with a big fine but faced much less scorn than GM. The media does love to pile on GM, as do many people, some in this thread have already expressed the desire to see GM fail. Seeing GM go down will effect much more than crooked execs.... and to answer an earlier question, yes it will effect business. It already has, my sales are down by almost 50% YTD.

People like me are the ones who get hurt when GM ****s up. Keep that in mind, there are real people with real obligations and responsibilities tied to GM's success and/or failure. I'm not suggesting people ignore this sort of thing so that people can make a living, I'm suggesting that you consider what you're really advocating.

I am GM, I'm very proud of my brand. If you really are that upset and if you really feel that GM should go under and are building unsafe cars, then I'd fully expect you to sell or trade your car....?

Any takers?

Frank Im with ya. I dont know how anyone who owns a Camaro or any other GM car or truck would want to see GM go down. I love Ford, Chevrolet and I stand behind them 110%. It will be a cold day in hell before I sell out to a asian or european car brand.

[redleader]

Originally Posted by sticks88

Until the people in charge of these big company's are jailed for this kind of stuff on a regular bases (being jailed that is) nothing will change . The fines will just add to the price of the products eventually.

Exactly #untouchable
Poor Role Models on both sides.

[redleader]

Just hope the insurance companies don't use it with a wide brush :-(

[jd10013]

Originally Posted by TxBandit911

Also, none of this would be an issue if people would just learn how drive a vehicle. Doesn't matter if the air bags are shut off or not. Engine dies = Crash and die doesn't and never will make any sense...

If people were smart enough to operate the vehicles they own, no one would have even know about this crap...

and again, you have no idea what your talking about. when the engineers were test driving vehicles it would happen to them. just the slightest brush against the steering column would sometimes cause the ignition to move into the off position. they wrote memo's about it, and initially GM ordered a new ignition designed. but that never happened, well, not till 2007 anyway. it has nothing to do with anybodies driving ability.

rather than spouting ignorance, read up on it a little bit

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...2c4_story.html

this part is key:
"March 2005: The engineering manager of the Cobalt closes an investigation into ignition switch problems, saying that proposed fixes would take too long and cost too much, and that “none of the solutions represents an acceptable business case.”

[Drumminxx]

Originally Posted by Muscle Car Memories

Frank Im with ya. I dont know how anyone who owns a Camaro or any other GM car or truck would want to see GM go down. I love Ford, Chevrolet and I stand behind them 110%. It will be a cold day in hell before I sell out to a asian or european car brand.

Amen brother!

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[EmeryZ28]

go read some of the NHTSA reports. Most of these crashed happened on unpaved roads and at excessive speeds. User error played a huge part in this. One of them, was a girl speeding on a dirt road and she was DRUNK. Yet her mom still had the audacity to go on CNN or HLN not sure which show I saw it on and blame GM.

[LBreezie]

Honestly it's stupid for these people to hang all this shit off their keychain then put the key into the ignition and expect something not to go bad while they are dangling a whole bunch of keys right next to their knee.