GM Shareholders Unflappable As Recall Repairs Begin This Week

In spite of General Motors losing $3 billion in shareholder value over four weeks since the recall crisis began, Bloomberg reports investors are holding onto their shares in the belief the automaker will recover from the debacle. Though questions about the delay persist, most shareholders are pleased with how CEO Mary Barra is guiding her company through the maelstrom.

Other factors in the massive stock decline include overseas challenges and weaknesses in product lines, including bringing European profits into the black, while Chevrolet’s Silverado fights Ram’s offerings in order to regain its traditional place in the monthly sales charts.

For those affected by the recall, CNN Money reports repairs of the out-of-spec ignition switch found in a handful of 2003 – 2011 vehicles will begin Monday, though the repairs will focus on the original recall of 2003 through 2007 models first, with fixes due later for 2008 – 2011 vehicles. GM advises consumers to make an appointment with their dealers before bringing in their affected vehicles. The repair is free of charge, and will take 30 minutes to accomplish, though customers may have to wait longer due to “scheduling requirements,” according to the automaker.

Speaking of the dealers, Bloomberg reports GM dealers as a whole have had to “act as therapists” for their customers who, like owner John McEleney of Clinton, Iowa, have been bombarded by recall news on a daily basis:

It’s a little bit unnerving because GM is on the front page — not of the business section, but the front page of the paper and the lead story on the news every day. People are concerned because they’re GM owners and they see all this publicity regarding GM.

Regarding the emergency injunction that would have forced GM to request affected consumers to park their cars until they were repaired, Detroit Free Press says U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos in Corpus Christi, Texas needs more time to thoroughly examine the brief filed on behalf of 15 families.

As for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, New York Times reports the agency and Congress both face questions over the former’s handling of the GM recall, from funding and punishments available to the NHTSA, to how the agency couldn’t find a clear link between the out-of-spec ignition and undeployed air bags in 2003 through 2006 Chevrolet Cobalts and Saturn Ions. Consumer advocate and former NHTSA chief Joan Claybrook offers this summation:

General Motors made the part, they designed the part, they sold the part that was defective and they knew about the problem fairly early on. And I believe that General Motors has the greatest culpability. But there is a really important story about NHTSA’s failure to handle this properly.