Quote Originally Posted by flotownj View Post
I really hope Mitsubishi can continue to remain in the U.S. market. I picked up my Mirage yesterday! Its just amazing to me that cheating a little on fuel economy test have dropped the companies stock 50%+ General Motors was KILLNG people with that ignition switch debaticle and knew about it and I didnt see their stock drop this much!!! It just blows my mind!
That's because there is a wide, and profound, gulf between what the media was telling you (OMG ignition switches are killing people!!!) and what was actually happening. Ever owned a Delta platform GM car? (Ion, G5, HHR, Cobalt, the cars having this problem) If you did, you could try an experiment. Put the ignition key in the switch. Turn it on but don't start it. Use a scale to pull down on the key. How much weight does it take?

Well I tried this with my pre-recall Ion when all this was going on. It took more than ten pounds of downward pressure. So knowing that, here is what's wrong with what you were told: If you have a normal keychain, you'll never have an issue. If you have 1/4 pound of crap on your keychain, and you experience an upward acceleration of 40 g, then the car could turn off.

Basically, if you were already in an accident, the car might shut off. But you still want to blame GM for it, because that's the popular thing to do, right?

Interestingly enough, there was a recall around the same time for the Takata airbags. These airbags were installed in many different kinds of cars, but since the most popular ones were Toyota And Honda, then it was the Takata airbags that were at fault, not the Honda or Toyota airbags. We can't blame them, because it's not popular to do so, even if it was covered up.

What does this have to do with the GM ignition switch? GM doesn't make the ignition switch any more than Honda or Toyota made those shrapnel filled airbags. But since they were put in GM cars, and it's popular to hate GM without prior thought, then it's GM's fault - not the fault of the vendor who made the switches.

I'm not defending GM here, I'm speaking out against the media swaying opinion on something they don't know anything about. Sorta like how most everyone on this site says auto reviewers are dumb for trying to nitpick the Mirage.