Despite her vehement denial of knowing anything about the ignition switch problems at GM (until late December, early January), documents revealed by the Energy and Commerce Department show:
- *GM'S BARRA TOLD OF STEERING PROBLEM IN 2011, DOCUMENTS SHOW
- *DEGIORGIO SAYS COST FOR ALL COBALT MODELS WOULD BE $10 EACH
We are sure the lawyers will be carefully crafting her PR response to this disaster but as Chairman Fred Upton notes, "There is still much left to examine and we will continue to
follow the facts... These initial documents revealed failures within the system."It seems this was the last straw for the hedge funds (GM is the most widely held) as the stock is dumping.
As Forbes noted,
A recurring theme in the investigation into General Motors delayed response to a safety risk associated with faulty ignition switches is why the chief executive, Mary Barra, didn’t know about the problem earlier and do something about it.
She was, after all, the head of global product development before she was CEO, and held a series of engineering and staff jobs before that.
“You’re a very important person in this company,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, sounding incredulous, told Barra after reading portions of her resume at a hearing this week. “Something is very strange that you don’t know about these things,” said the California Democrat.
And now...Bloomberg reports,
“These initial documents revealed failures within the system,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Cmte Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mi., says in statement.
- “There is still much left to examine and we will continue to follow the facts”
- GM CEO Mary Barra told of steering problem in 2011, according to documents released by cmte
- NHTSA sought investigation of Cobalts for airbags in 2007
- GM engineer Ray DeGiorgio said it was “impossible” to modify switch
- *GM IN 2005 SAID IT SAW NO ISSUE WITH COBALT AIRBAGS: DOCUMENTS
- *GM IN '07 SAID IT SAW `NO SPECIFIC PROBLEM' WITH COBALT AIRBAGS
- *COBALT AIRBAG WARRANTY RATE MORE THAN 9%; FORD RATE WAS 2%
- *NHTSA SAID IT SAW A PATTERN OF AIRBAG NON-DEPLOYMENTS
- *DEGIORGIO SIGNED OFF ON NEW IGNITION PART IN 2006
- *DEGIORGIO APPROVED NEW GM PART WITHOUT NEW NUMBER: DOCUMENTS
NHTSA...
- *NHTSA INVESTIGATOR SAID GM WAS `SLOW TO ACT' VS OTHER COS.
- *NHTSA INVESTIGATOR SAID IN 2013 GM IS `SLOW TO COMMUNICATE'
Here is the email that shows Barra knew of the problems in 2011...
