The General Motors Ignition Switch Scandal

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Before the Volkswagen scandal, people could really care less about any recalls. There were dozens of recalls that preceded the diesel scandal that were a blip in the american radar at best. That all changed when Volkswagen admitted wrongdoing to the EPA, and everyone else in the world.
After the company acknowledged the charges, they lost a quarter of their stock value, essentially overnight. No automotive faux pas that preceded it (barring the Audi smear campaign, but I will address that another time) had anywhere near the kind of fiscal backlash that Volkswagen is facing.
The General Motors ignition switch massacre, ostensibly killed at least 120 people, paired with the changing of CEOs (which always results in a stock slump) only yielded …show more content…

Even the subcontractor that built the ignition switches warned GM in 1999, at the moment I cannot find the link to that information, I will link it as soon as I do.
That said, strike that from the record, and remember that a whistleblower was punished for bringing news of faulty ignition switches to record in 2003, and that Federal safety inspectors became aware of the life ending fault... in 2001! 13 years before the news broke.
And it is worse for VW AG, because it is not just the auto group name sake (i.e. Volkswagen AG) that is seeing sales slumps, both of their blue ribbon brands (Porsche and Audi) are suffering as well.
So then the question becomes, why Volkswagen? Is there a tint of Jingoism involved? Probably, but that's for another article. The biggest difference, is that the scandal of it all, was immediately apparent.
Volkswagen was hugely popular and universally well received, and they lied. People love to catch a liar in the act, especially if the liar is a public figure (see: Bill Clinton) or seen as a best in their field (see: Lance Armstrong). Volkswagen was

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