General Motors is on the ropes, knees buckling, as it takes repeated body blow.
The recalls keep coming. And the federal government’s $35 million fine is only the beginning of a series of escalating payouts before all of this passes.
Someone told me GM will be fine. After all, it is sitting on a $35 billion cash reserve. Well, I seem to recall that is almost the identical reserve GM was sitting on when Rick Wagoner took the helm not so many years ago. It took less than a decade of losses to burn through that before the automaker entered bankruptcy.
I’m not predicting that will happen again, but Mary Barra inherited the whirlwind when she became GM CEO this year. At least a decade or more of cover-ups and admitted misdirection falls on her. It’s too bad the reckoning arrived on her watch.
GM just announced an additional four recalls affecting another 2.5 million vehicles. It announced five recalls the week before that.
It is approaching 14 million vehicles and $400 million in related costs just this quarter alone, not counting litigations and additional fines. A recall doesn’t automatically mean something is wrong with a particular car, but the recurring recall message to consumers seems to be GM cars aren’t safe.
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