DETROIT — General Motors recalled a small number of Pontiac G6 midsize cars to fix a faulty brake light system in 2009, yet waited more than five years to call back over 2 million other cars with the same system, according to company documents filed with federal safety regulators.

The documents, filed Thursday, show that GM recalled about 8,000 Pontiacs from the 2005 and 2006 model years because the brake lights might not work when the driver stepped on the brake pedal. But the company didn't recall later-model G6s or the Chevrolet Malibu and Saturn Aura until three weeks ago. The cars are nearly identical.

GM says the problem has caused 13 accidents and 2 injuries. GM thought the addition of a lubricant would fix the problem in newer cars, but it proved insufficient. Dealers were made aware of the problem, but car owners weren't told directly. As a result, a potential safety problem went uncorrected for years.

The company waited to recall the other cars until this year because the problem didn't happen as frequently as it did in the 2005 and 2006 G6 models, spokesman Alan Adler said. "We were monitoring these vehicles and looking to see what was happening with them all along," he said. "We made a decision that we thought was appropriate."

In addition, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration didn't pressure GM to recall the newer cars. It even closed an investigation into the matter in 2009 after GM announced the initial G6 recall.

The company says it has changed its criteria for recalling cars. It now issues recalls based on the severity of a safety problem rather than the number of warranty claims or complaints, Adler said.

It's another example of how GM previously resisted recalling cars and trucks to fix safety problems.

The company is facing investigations from Congress and the Justice Department over why it waited at least a decade to recall about 2.6 million older small cars to fix an ignition switch problem. The company says that problem is linked to crashes that killed 13 people, but trial lawyers say the death toll is at least 60.

The problem can affect some of a car's other functions. If the cruise control is on, drivers may have to push harder on the brake pedal to get it to disengage, and the cars could be shifted out of "park" without the driver having a foot on the brake. Also, the cars' traction control, electronic stability control and panic braking assist features, all designed to prevent crashes or lessen their severity, could become disabled.

In total, the brake light recall covers 2.4 million G6, Malibu, Malibu Maxx and Aura models spanning model years 2004 through 2012, according to the documents.

GM has been checking into past safety issues and recalling cars with potential problems. The review has led to the recall of 13.8 million cars and trucks so far this year. That beats the full-year record of 10.75 million in 2004.

DETROIT, MI- Former General Motors Co. CEO Dan Akerson denies having any knowledge of the ignition switch defect that has been linked to at least 13 deaths during his time leading the automaker.

Akerson told Forbes that neither he nor current CEO Mary Barra were aware of the defect, which was the catalyst for GM now recalling nearly 13.8 million vehicles in the U.S. this year.

"If I knew about it, she'd have to know about it," Akerson, who had previously not publicly commented on the matter, told Forbes' Joann Muller. "And I didn't know about it."

Barra has said she found out about the ignition switch defect on Jan. 31 – 16 days after Akerson's retirement.

Since the ignition switch recall spawned GM's ongoing recall crisis, some have speculated that Barra – the first female CEO of any major automaker – was set up to fail.

In the Forbes article, Akerson also addressed that rumor: "Of course not!" he said. "Mary has said it – the moment she became aware of the problem, as I would expect, she confronted it. She didn't know about it. I bet my life on it."

The faulty ignition switches can move out of the "run" position to the "accessory" or "off" positions, leading to a loss of power. The risk may be increased if the key ring is carrying added weight or if the vehicle goes off road or experiences some jarring event, including rough roads. If the key turns to one of those positions, officials say the front air bags may not work if there's a crash.

The 2.6 million vehicles, including 2.2 million in the U.S., affected by the ignition switch recall include 2003-2007 Saturn Ions, 2007-2010 Saturn Skys, 2005-2011 Chevrolet HHRs, 2006-2010 Pontiac Solstices, and 2005-10 Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 models.

According to testimony and documents submitted to a Congress subcommittee, GM knew about the faulty ignition switches in the early-2000s, but did not officially start recalling the vehicles until February of this year.

Akerson announced his Jan. 15 retirement on Dec. 10, a day after the U.S. government announced its full exodus from the Detroit-based automaker. However, Akerson's retirement was for personal reasons, not the automaker shedding its "Government Motors" status.

Akerson succeeded Edward Whitacre and served as the chairman and CEO of GM from Jan. 1, 2011 to Jan. 15, 2014 and from Sept. 1, 2010 to Jan. 15, 2014 respectively.

I continue to be surprised by the number of conspiracy theorists who speculate that Mary Barra, General Motors’ first female chief executive, was set up to take the fall for the safety crisis now engulfing the company.

I heard it again this week after my FORBES cover story about Barra hit the web. Just two weeks after Barra became CEO last January, GM was rocked by allegations that it failed to properly correct an ignition problem that is now blamed for at least 13 deaths in Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other GM vehicles. She insists she didn’t know about problem until after her promotion.

According to the conspiracy theorists, GM’s former CEO, Dan Akerson, and the company’s male-dominated board must have known what was coming and decided to make Barra a sacrificial lamb. Why? There are two schools of thought: 1) by promoting the first woman as CEO, GM could soften the blow from criticism of its mishandling of the issue; or 2) Barra could take the brunt of the hit, shielding the men, and then be expended after the crisis is resolved. Congratulations, Mary. You broke through the glass ceiling; now you’re about to get shoved off a glass cliff.

Two University of Exeter psychologists, Michelle Ryan and Alex Haslam, coined the term “Glass Cliff” in a 2005 paper and say the phenomenon is real. Their research suggests women are often promoted to dangerous jobs during a crisis, then often dumped when they can’t clean up the mess. A few who come to mind: Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard and Zoe Cruz of J.P. Morgan. Some wonder if Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer is next.

What fascinates me most about GM and Mary Barra, however, is the source of the speculation. “All the women I know assume she was set up,” one former director of another major auto company (a man) told me. And that’s consistent with the feedback I’m hearing from people both in and outside the auto industry. Women, far more than men, it seems, are buying into the idea that Barra was thrown under the bus.

“I do not believe that — at all,” an emphatic Barra told me. “I believe this issue came up, and we learned about it, the leadership learned about it on Jan 31 and we’re dealing with it, and it just happened to be two weeks after I officially came into this job.”

I asked Akerson point-blank in an interview whether Barra was set up. “Of course not!” he said. “Mary has said it – the moment she became aware of the problem, as I would expect, she confronted it. She didn’t know about it. I bet my life on it.” He said there was a kind of “perverseness” about such thinking. “If I knew about it, she’d have to know about it,” he said. “And I didn’t know about it.”

I also asked GM’s new chairman, Tim Solso, if he knew what was coming, and whether Barra was thrown under the bus. “I became non-executive chairman in mid-January and I assure you I did not know anything about it at that point. Right after she knew, she called me.” He added that there was nothing “extraordinary” about their initial conversation about the recall. “Clearly we didn’t know the depth and all the circumstances” until later, he said.

Solso, the former chairman and CEO of Cummins, is an outsider, so he wouldn’t have reason to know about the issue before he joined GM. I also don’t believe Akerson, a U.S. Navy veteran, would hide behind a woman. He, after all, mentored Barra over the past three years, and the two executives shared long conversations about leadership, culture change and GM’s future. He put her in the CEO job, and her success or failure is part of his legacy. More to the point, Akerson, 65, has been upfront about his decision to leave GM to care for his wife, Karin, who continues to battle cancer. In March, he rejoined the Carlyle Group as vice chairman and special advisor to the board of directors in Washington, DC , where the couple lives.

I have no reason to doubt Barra’s claim that she was blind-sided by the crisis moments after she walked into her new office. She has a long reputation for straight-talk and personal accountability. Implausible as it sounds that Barra, who headed global product development before becoming CEO, didn’t know about a festering safety issue, I believe her.

Results of an internal investigation will soon explain exactly what happened. I think it’ll show that GM is guilty of incompetence, not a cover-up.

WASHINGTON — US regulators are investigating potential flaws in at least 2 million General Motors vehicles that remain on the road, underlining the possibility for still more recalls on top of this year’s already-record tally.

The largest US automaker may continue to recall vehicles into the middle of the summer months, Brian Johnson, a Barclays analyst, wrote last week after meeting with a top GM executive. The company did not dispute Johnson’s characterization.

Clues to the sorts of issues that could be subject to recalls, and their potential scope, are contained in documents and data kept by the auto industry’s main US regulator, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency is looking into complaints from drivers on issues including corroding brake lines and the unexpected failure of automatic braking and headlights in GM vehicles, according to data on its website, which is regularly updated.

Any recalls would come on top of almost 14 million vehicles that GM has called back so far this year in the United States. That already exceeds GM’s 10.7 million-vehicle mark set in 2004, according to NHTSA’s data. By comparison, Americans are expected to buy 16.1 million new cars and trucks this year, according to the average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

GM is ‘‘continuing to work with NHTSA to resolve’’ its open investigations, Alan Adler, a spokesman for the automaker, wrote in an e-mail Tuesday.

In April, chief executive Mary Barra was called in front of Congress to explain why the company took years to publicize faulty ignition switches in models from the mid-2000s that have been linked to at least 13 deaths. Since then, GM has told owners of millions more vehicles to bring their cars to dealers for repairs to shift cables, seat belts, and other parts.

‘‘They let the genie out of the bottle and can’t put it back in,’’ said Jack Nerad, executive market analyst at auto researcher Kelley Blue Book. ‘‘They’re almost certainly going to be finding more.’’

Every automaker has recalls. Ford Motor (F) has had them. Toyota Motor (TM) has had them. But has anyone ever had a string of recalls like General Motors (GM), which has recalled nearly 16 million cars? That, of course, begs the question: How many more cars can General Motors recall?

Citigroup’s Itay Michaeli tries to answer that question:

…we began with MY‘06 and higher vehicles where we first bucketed “complaint/recall catalysts” and then concatenated the databases to yield a unique identifier based on vehicle MY, make, model & catalyst. For complaints, we looked at each unique identifier to identify unique VIN numbers. We ran a similar analysis for the recall database and then cross-referenced both data sets to see how many recalls had registered complaints to generate a number of complaints-per-concatenated recall. We then went back to look for complaints where the number exceeded the simple average but have yet to be recalled. Our analysis highlighted ~275 unique concatenations across ~50 GM models not yet recalled. When we looked at total production of these models, we calculated a max potential for 10.0-11.5 million vehicles. At ~$78 cost/vehicle (similar to Q2 charge), this would amount to $800-$900mln or $~0.35/share. Note that not all recalls originate from NHTSA complaints.

And what if General Motors recalled everything? Michaeli estimates that General Motors has 68 million cars on the road, which would imply $4.2 billion, or $1.60 a share, of risk, if cars that have already been recalled are exuded.

Clearly, the recalls must be having an impact: General Motors has dropped 0.6% to $34.38 t 12:15 a.m. today, while Toyota Motor has gained 1.3% to $111.34 and Ford Motor has advanced 1.4% to $16.54.

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) -
Hundreds of Nashvillians could be driving recalled cars from General Motors with faulty ignition switches.

GM recalled 2.6 million cars in February for ignition switch problems that have led to at least 13 deaths nationwide, and many affected drivers say they have been put on a waiting list for the critical repair.

Cory Bellamy is driving his wife's car these days.

"The notice that we got said quick jarring on the road could cause the ignition to slip," Bellamy said.

Their 2005 Chevy Cobalt is on the GM recall list for ignition problems.

"It's kind of nerve-racking knowing my wife could be driving to work one day and, you know, it seizes up and you get in an accident," Bellamy said.

Officials say GM knew about the problem for at least a year before issuing the recall. Now, months later, many drivers aren't able to get the 57-cent service replacement part GM says will fix the problem.

"We're just on the wait list. We've been on the wait list a month-and-a-half now, waiting to hear from the dealership," Bellamy said.

Julie Miller owns a 2007 Chevy Cobalt and says her experience, which started back in February, was a "huge hassle," claiming several Nashville-area dealerships refused to follow through with GM's promise to provide rental cars to waiting customers.

"They told me they were out of cars. Secondly, GM would have to qualify me in order to get the car. I said, 'No, that's not what I heard,'" Miller said.

Miller says Freeland Chevrolet told her they wouldn't provide a rental unless her car was showing signs of a problem.

After approaching three GM dealerships with her recall letter, she says one finally agreed to provide the temporary car after she made two calls to GM headquarters.

She got her car back in April.

"They got me a rental car. They had it for about a month-and-a-half. They fixed it, and it's fine now. But there's just not a whole lot of communication between GM and the dealers," Miller said.

Freeland Chevrolet responded Friday, apologizing for what happened to Miller and saying they will not turn any customer away that requests a rental car while they way for the replacement parts, which they say are on back-order nationwide.

They're also urging customers who feel unsafe driving their recalled cars to take any additional keys off their key rings.

The additional weight can also trigger the ignition defect.

An engineer at General Motors who is at the center of accusations that the company covered up a deadly defect appeared distraught during lengthy questioning by congressional investigators, according to people familiar with the session.

The engineer, Raymond DeGiorgio, who was suspended last month with pay, has not spoken publicly since G.M. acknowledged the ignition switch defect in February and began recalling millions of Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other models. The automaker has linked the defect to 13 deaths, a number that federal regulators said was expected to grow.

A House staff aide said that Mr. DeGiorgio, 61, appeared “genuinely upset” about the deaths and about his inability to connect the ignition switch problem with the failure of air bags to deploy.

Raymond DeGiorgio, an engineer at General Motors, is at the center of accusations that the company covered up a deadly defect. video Video: G.M.
The defective switch could cause engines to shut down, disabling electrical systems and things like power steering, power brakes and air bags. Mr. DeGiorgio, who has worked at G.M. since 1991, was a lead design engineer for ignition switches for a variety of models.

“He came across as if he was just overburdened and just missed it,” said the staff member, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation. Mr. DeGiorgio’s comments, during 10 hours of questioning on May 19, offer a glimpse into how the switch was secretly changed eight years ago, but no recall was issued for vehicles equipped with the defective switches until this February.

Mr. DeGiorgio did not give any information that indicated that the new chief executive of G.M., Mary T. Barra, knew anything about the problem before she took her job early this year. He did not seek to implicate any of his superiors, the people familiar with the questioning said.

Mr. DeGiorgio was asked about statements he made during a deposition last year in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought against G.M. Mr. DeGiorgio told the congressional investigators that when giving that deposition, he had forgotten his decision to order a major upgrade in the switch, according to the people familiar with the session.

Mr. DeGiorgio signed off on changes in the ignition switch in April 2006, authorizing a supplier, Delphi, to make improvements to the switch at its manufacturing plant in Mexico. But he denied it in the deposition last year in the lawsuit, which was brought by the family of a Georgia woman who died in a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt.

“I don’t ever recall authorizing such a change,” he said in a sworn deposition in April 2013.

Under questioning by the House investigators, Mr. DeGiorgio said he had forgotten about the fix — which involved a stronger spring in the mechanism that determines how much force is needed to turn the key — because it was one of a package of changes, and because it was seven years before the deposition, according to the people familiar with the questioning.

Mr. DeGiorgio was not sworn in, but speaking untruthfully in such settings can carry substantial legal penalties, according to experts.

The change he approved covered two items, the spring and a printed circuit board, known as a P.C.B., that was causing some Saturn Ion models not to start, according to one person involved in the case.

“He definitely said he was more focused on electrical problems” said the staff member, who described Mr. DeGiorgio as “very emotional at times.”

Mr. DeGiorgio’s actions might not have come to light without an independent investigation by a Florida engineer, Mark Hood, who was retained by the family of the Georgia woman, Brooke Melton.

Mr. Hood discovered that switches in Cobalts made after 2006 were significantly stronger than ones found in pre-2006 cars.

He was pressed on that point by Lance Cooper, the lawyer for the Melton family during the deposition last year.

“So if any such change is made, it was made without your knowledge and authorization?” Mr. Cooper asked.

“That is correct,” Mr. DeGiorgio said.

The Meltons have asked that their case against G.M. be reopened on the grounds that Mr. DeGiorgio possibly committed perjury, because it appeared that he gave a false answer in the deposition last year.

Ms. Barra, the chief executive, acknowledged under questioning by lawmakers on April 2 that Mr. DeGiorgio might have lied during his deposition.

“You know he lied under oath,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri.

“The data that’s been put in front of me indicates that, but I’m waiting for the full investigation,” Ms. Barra said.

Eight days later, on April 10, Mr. DeGiorgio was suspended with pay by G.M. along with his supervisor, Gary Altman. House investigators have also interviewed Mr. Altman. Mr. DeGiorgio has not returned telephone calls to his home in a rural suburb of Detroit.

Interviews by House investigators are often a preliminary step to calling witnesses for a public hearing, although the House committee undertaking the investigation, Energy and Commerce, has not scheduled a hearing.

I continue to be surprised by the number of conspiracy theorists who speculate that Mary Barra, General Motors’ first female chief executive, was set up to take the fall for the safety crisis now engulfing the company.