Senators Want NHTSA To Force GM To Park Recalled Vehicles

Automotive News reports General Motors’ top lawyer, Michael Millikin, is co-leading the internal investigation with former U.S. attorney Anton Valukas into the events that led to the February 2014 recall crisis that befell the automaker. The former U.S. assistant attorney joined GM in 1977, switching from battling drug lords to corporate traitors, such as the two-pronged litigation against both Volkswagen and former GM purchasing chief J. Ignacio Lopez when it was found Lopez had stolen various confidential documents upon his departure in 1993; the case was settled in 1997.

As for his current case, Millikin and his legal department found themselves under the gun earlier this month before Congress, with legislatures asking how much was known by them regarding the various lawsuits linked to the ongoing recall. GM stated its lawyer learned of the issue at the end of January 2014.

Speaking of investigations, the automaker is tripling the number of product investigators under a restructuring plan announced last week. The investigators are in charge of finding patterns in reports, complaints, lawsuits and miscellaneous data pointing toward a potential safety issue in a given product. The new staff will report to global safety group chief Jeff Boyer, who is also overseeing the newly established product integrity unit created from the former global vehicle engineering unit, the latter divided in two as part of the restructuring plan.

Over in Washington, D.C., The Detroit News reports Sens. Edward Markley of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut want the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to issue a park-it-now advisory for the 2.6 million cars affected by the ignition recall. Though the agency will “respond directly” to the senators in regards to the letter sent to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx about the order, the NHTSA will continue to advise affected owners to follow GM’s recommendations until the issue is resolved, and to always wear seat belts. A similar attempt failed before a federal judge two weeks earlier, much to the relief of GM.

Finally, Automotive News posted a thought exercise on the $7,000/day fine GM is paying the NHTSA for failing to fully answer the 107-question survey about the recall. Already over $150,000, and with answers to come as soon as the end of May 2014, the fines would amount to $400,00, the salary paid to U.S. President Barack Obama annually. If carried further, though, Vice President Joe Biden and Obama’s Cabinet would each have a Corvette Stingray parked on the South Lawn in three months, while in just over 4,100 years, the U.S. government could regain every cent of the $10.5 billion paid in the GM bailout; whether there would be a United States by then is another matter, however.