The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an investigation into how General Motors handled the recall of 1.4 million vehicles in the U.S. with ignition-switch issues.
GM has until April 3 to respond to a 27-page list of 107 questions, according to the NHTSA.
"We are a data-driven organization and we will take whatever action is appropriate based on where our findings lead us," said NHTSA in a statement on its website.
Affected vehicles includes: the 2005-'07 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2006-'07 Chevrolet HHR and Pontiac Solstice, 2007 Pontiac G5 and Saturn Sky and 2003-'-7 Saturn Ion.
The issue has resulted in at least 13 deaths in the U.S.
"We are fully cooperating with NHTSA and we welcome the opportunity to help the agency have a full understanding of the facts," GM said in a statement, according to Edmunds. "In addition to getting NHTSA the information they need, we are doing what we can now to ensure our customers' safety and peace of mind. We want our customers to know that today's GM is committed to fixing this problem in a manner that earns their trust."
The defect concerns the previously mentioned vehicle's ignition switches that may move from the "run" position to the "accessory" or "off" position unintentionally. This would cause a loss of power, increasing the chance of a crash.
The defect could also cause airbags not to be deployed in the event of a crash as well, according to the NHTSA.
Federal safety regulators essentially want to know what GM knew about the issue and for how long.
NHTSA said it hopes the probe will "determine whether GM properly followed the legal processes and requirements for reporting recalls."
The NHTSA wants GM to "describe in detail the ways in which GM's process 'was not as robust as it should have been' and GM's plans (if any) to change its process."
GM might have known of issues with the ignition switches as early as 2004, but did not announce a recall until this past February.
On Tuesday GM CEO Mary Barra said the company has launched its own internal review "to give us an unvarnished report on what happened."
"We will hold ourselves accountable and improve our processes so our customers do not experience this again," Barra wrote on a GM corporate blog post. "We sincerely apologized to our customers and others who have a stake in GM's success.
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