2005 Saturn Ion 2 on 2040-cars

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GM ignition switch trial cleared to begin on January 11

US District Judge Jesse Furman didn't accept General Motor's attempt to dismiss a civil trial over the automaker's faulty ignition switches, and set a January 11 start date for the case to begin, according to Reuters. The judge found that plaintiff Robert Scheuer had the evidence to proceed with the case. Scheuer was injured in an accident in his 2003 Saturn Ion in 2014 when another vehicle forced him off the road, and he crashed into some trees. The airbag didn't deploy, and Scheuer alleged this was the result of the faulty ignition switch. According to Reuters, Scheuer's trial is one of six bellwether cases over GM's ignition switch problem in the coming year. Juries' decisions in these lawsuits should provide an example of how similar trials could end, and these results would help The General decide whether to settle other pending cases or to keep fighting them. The ignition switch fiasco has already cost GM billions. For example, the company's compensation program offered $594.5 million in 399 cases of people killed or injured by the defective parts. Anyone that accepted this money agreed not to sue GM for the problem later. The company also came to a $900 million criminal settlement with the US government and paid $575 million in civil resolutions in September.

Guess when this car will plunge through the ice, win $1,500

In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a sad-sack Saturn raises money for charity while awaiting an icy fate. The 1998 Saturn is a bright orange beacon inviting folks to make a bet on the coming of spring. When the weather warms up enough and this Saturn sinks, someone is going to take home $1,500. It's the Iron Mountain–Kingsford Rotary Club's annual car-plunge contest, a fundraiser that takes bets on when this car will fall through the ice. The contest had been run in years past and was resurrected in 2015. In the old days, the hapless cars sank to the bottom of the lake, which is actually a flooded old iron mine. In today's more enlightened environmental era, this Saturn is attached to a cable affixed to an anchor on shore, allowing it to be yanked out of the water. It also has been drained of all fluids, degreased, and had its powertrain, battery, and radiator removed (which means it weighs about 1,800 pounds). The lake sits alongside a main highway, assuring maximum visibility for the car and the contest. But it's not only locals who are invited to take a chance; anyone 18 and over can bet via this online link. Ten dollars buys three chances. Whoever most closely guesses the date and time that the Saturn slips under the waves takes home $1,500. Betting closes March 15. The past four years have seen the car fall through on March 17, April 2, April 4, and April 26 — although, as they say, past performance is no guarantee of future returns. And remember: Bet with your head, not over it. Here's video of last year's fateful moment ...

Saturn Vue ignition issue was discussed three times before recall, new documents reveal

Despite the tens of millions of recalled vehicles this year, it's somewhat rare that we get a glimpse into what goes into deciding when to conduct one of these safety campaigns. New documents published by General Motors and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are giving us an interesting opportunity to see how the sausage is made and show the number of meetings it takes to declare a recall.
In early August, GM added about another 269,000 vehicles to its 2014 recall tally in the US when it announced a slew of new safety campaigns. Among them was a fix for the 2002-2004 Saturn Vue that covered 202,155 of them in the US. The problem was that the key could be removed from the ignition even when it wasn't in the "OFF" position, and that had caused two crashes and one injury, according to the automaker.
Where we start to see behind the veil is in the defect notice freshly released by NHTSA. It shows that GM began investigating more widely for ignition switches in April, shortly after the company expanded its ignition switch recall to a variety of Saturn products, among others, according to Automotive News. The automaker found 152 reports in the 2002-2004 Vue of vehicles rolling away or the key being removed out of a total population of 215,243 units worldwide.