GM announces details of compensation plan for the victims and families:
Were the Chrysler switches now being recalled also made by Delphi? Don’t hear much about that one.
Don’t know, but this is an interesting look at the contentious relationship between GM and Delphi:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140414/AUTO0103/304140009
Interesting article. It used to be business school 101 to foster long term relationships with your suppliers, that is until the short term finance folks took over and down the path we went with Walmart squeezing every penny out.
They talked about how part of the issue was the UAW and the need to keep the lines in production since they had to pay the labor anyway. Then of course the fierce cost cutting to compete with imports and now the feds smuggly say shame and level the fines. But wait lets go full circle and talk about what started it all in the first place-CAFE standards that the politicals knew favored the imports and would cause havoc to the current US companies. And down the crooked path we went.
Naw, cutting back to the nub of the issue, it wasn’t the spring pressure on the switches, or the cover up, or the redesign, etc. It was much more systemic than that, and not just GM and not just the auto industry. Very interesting if we can learn from it all.
CAFE was started in 1975. It’s now 2013 and GM has recalled more cars this year than any other year in history. Hard to blame that on CAFE. Especially since other mfrs like Ford aren’t having problems to the same degree.
Just sayin’ let’s peel the onion back to see where and why the downward spiral started in the first place is all.
Just sayin' let's peel the onion back to see where and why the downward spiral started in the first place is all.
The onion has been peeled…And Cafe’ is NOT the problem. Never was the problem. We have almost 40 years of evidence to prove that.
More evidence that GM tried to hide the switch problem, and also that NHTSA dropped the ball:
Just an FYI:
I was a rep for a tire manufacturer calling on the major vehicle manufacturers in the middle 1980’s. CAFE was not a problem that affected the OEM/Supplier relationship. It was the OEM’s attitude.
Because the car manufacturers were many times larger than the typical supplier - and because “the customer is always right, even when he is wrong” - the OEM’s tended to bully the supplier. Suppliers were blamed for all manner of things. Some of those things were even the suppliers fault!
GM wasn’t the worse, but they certainly exhibited the trait.
At one point in time, the failure rate of those ignition switches wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow. There were much, much larger problems. It’s hard for people in the position of responsibility to keep up with where that line is as it keeps moving. I know I have been guilty of it!
At the moment I think we are seeing GM overcompensating. They know they are under scrutiny and they want to get the spot light off them. But other OEM’s are aware that they could be next, so don’t be surprised to see a whole rash of recalls.
This isn’t a symptom of things going wrong. It’s a symptom of the system working.
deleted…sorry got Michael Milken (inside trader from the 80s) and Michael P. Milliken (GM legal dept head) mixed up in my head.
Just got my G6 recall notice for brake lights. No parts available yet so will be notified. I check the brake lights quite a bit so really don’t see it as a problem but I’ll bring it in.