The auto giant recalled another 8.4 million cars yesterday, raising the grand total for this year to 28 million vehicles, including 25 million in the US:
To put that in perspective, the entire auto industry recalled 22 million cars in the US last year.
Morrissey notes:
Recalls don’t come cheap, either. This recall will cost the automaker an additional $500 million, adding to the $700 million charge it took in the second quarter for the previous recalls. That’s a big loss for a defect known to GM long before the bailout, and known to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) during it. That’s why some investors are likely also saying, “Are you kidding me?”
Treasury divested itself of its GM stock in December, just coincidentally before all of the defects became important enough to address. The people who bought that stock had no idea that GM would need to pull 27 million vehicles off the road for critical repairs, but the question will be whether the NHTSA and Obama administration knew about it before dumping their stock. Had any individual investor done that, he’d be looking at a criminal probe from the SEC.
Noting that GM has now recalled more cars this year than it sold in the previous three, Alison Griswold wonders whether anyone cares:
At this point, it’s hard to know whether to be shocked, worried, or just unimpressed when GM initiates another tremendous recall—by now it feels like par for the course. And as I wrote in Slate earlier this month, consumers don’t seem to be paying much heed to the news: GM’s monthly sales in May rose to their highest level since August 2008.
The Dish 