Can GM recover from a year of 'great disappointment'? - BBC News
US car makers were forced to recall a record number of cars in 2014, as an ignition switch scandal at General Motors put a renewed focus on safety. In the wake of revelations that GM had ignored a series of fatal accidents relating to problems with ignition switches in its vehicles, the car maker was forced to recall 2. 6m cars in February 2014. But as a series of mistakes by GM's engineers... The total number of recalls ended up being significantly higher than the number of cars GM sold during the year. "Certainly no-one expected [2014] to unfold the way it did - it was a tragedy," said Ms Barra, as the total number of deaths linked to the faulty ignition switches grew to 42 and the cost to GM ballooned to $400m (£256m), including a $35m fine... Honda, BMW and others were all forced to issue recalls for cars containing the airbags. So now, with nearly 60m cars in the US recalled - that's one out of every five cars on the road today - all eyes in Detroit are not just on the glitzy new launches, but on the lessons learned from previous safety issues. Source: www.bbc.com
