GM Chief Executive Mary Barra: ‘We Failed Our Customers’

GM Chief Executive Mary Barra: ‘We failed our customers’
By Matt Wilson | Posted: June 26, 2014

Hours after news broke that General Motors has halted sales of its 2013-2014 Chevrolet Cruze models over possibly defective air bags, the company’s CEO, Mary Barra, sat down with the “Today” show’s Matt Lauer to talk about the millions of cars GM has recalled this year.

Many of the recalled vehicles had faulty ignition switches, which have been linked to 13 deaths and 54 crashes, though reports state they’re likely to have caused many more than that.

“Clearly this issue took too long to find,” she told Lauer. “In this case, we failed our customers. We failed them with these vehicles.”

She said she didn’t believe there was a cover-up of the potential dangers in the cars’ faulty ignitions. Rather, she said information was in silos within the company and employees failed to come forward with the information they had.

“The problem with this is that people didn't understand the safety aspects of it,” Barra said.

If GM recalls the Cruze, it would be the company’s 45th recall of the year so far.

This month, GM fired 15 employees over the ignition problem. Barra didn't rule out any additional recalls, saying, “We’re going to take the action that we need.” However, she said the firings are over.

“The investigation that was done independently was exhaustive,” she said. “It went to all areas. There were people in five different functions, across all levels of the company. Associated with this situation, we’ve addressed the issue.”

In response to a question about whether criminal charges could be brought over the ignition problems, Barra said, “That’s for the courts to decide.”

Culled from PR Daily News