General Motors Recall

[SRSTEVE]

Is it just me but as soon as Toyota have any recall regardless of which country it is in it makes headline news in the press and tv. General Motors have now recalled around 15 million vehicles this year for numerous safety issues resulting in 13 deaths and 47 accidents which they admit to and all you see is a little post on the BBC News website under the business section. And another thing , Toyota agreed to pay 1.2billion dollars fine for faults and General Motors fined 39m dollars for 13 deaths ! Rant over.

[Phil_1985]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the Toyota accelerator pedal recall only affected cars with pedals made by GM?

I can't remember where I read this or if it's even true or not - did a quick search online and cannot find anything. Can anyone confirm?

I do agree however that as soon as Toyota issues a recall the media are on it straight away! A bit unfair I think!

[FROSTYBALLS]

After GM filed for bankruptcy in 2009, two companies were effectively formed - 'Old GM' which retained the majority of GM's environmental and legal liabilities and unwanted parts of the business prior to the bankruptcy, and 'New GM' which cherry picked the profitable parts of GM it wanted to purchase. There is also a shield in place which prevents 'New GM' from being liable for any faults, etc prior to bankruptcy, although 'New GM' did take on some liabilities for vehicles made before 2009.

Currently there are thousands of pre-2009 GM vehicle owners suing New GM for loss of value of their vehicles, and legal decisions are awaited on the liabilities that New GM actually has.

As the two major Toyota recalls coincided with GM going through bankruptcy, which was one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in US history, it wasn't surprising that the US deflected media attention away from GM onto Toyota.

As regards the accelerator pedal recall, these assemblies were made by two companies, Denso (part of the Toyota Group) and, what was said at the time of the recall, part of GM. With GM's re-organisation post bankruptcy and the shedding of parts of the original GM, it has become less clear what part of GM was responsible for the pedal assemblies.