WE SHOULD count ourselves lucky that Opel is still with us at all. Over the last decade a number of scenarios were proposed during discussions about the future of Opel’s parent, General Motors; one of those was the closure of the European arm.

America’s largest carmaker General Motors has been forced to recall 25.7m vehicles so far this year and is being sued after faults were linked to at least 13 deaths. Now it has emerged, the company may have been ignoring warnings for years. Tim Higgins and Nick Summers investigate.

General Motors recalled another 8.45 million more vehicles yesterday — surpassing the record for US safety fixes by an carmaker in a calendar year, as chief executive Mary Barra steps up efforts to shed GM’s reputation for foot-dragging on defective parts.

General Motors Co suffered from "incompetence and neglect" in dealing with a long-running ignition-switch defect in vehicles linked to at least 13 deaths, CEO Mary Barra said yesterday, as she announced the creation of a fund to compensate victims.

General Motors is recalling more than 1.5 million vehicles because they may unexpectedly lose power steering.

Many parents of young motorists are asking questions about the death of their children after General Motors recalled models that were aimed at first-time drivers, write Jeff Green and Patrick Lee

General Motors CEO Mary Barra, speaking for the first time about the recall of 1.6m small cars, personally apologised for “everything that has happened” and extended condolences to affected families.

General Motors yesterday announced three more recalls, related to airbag deployment and other issues, and said it would take a $300m (€215m) charge primarily to cover the costs related to these actions as well as the previous recall for faulty ignition switches.

US vice president Joe Biden says the US government’s wager on the motor industry has paid off.

General Motors Co, which announced a 30 cent a share dividend yesterday, forecast 2014 profit to modestly improve this year, as it introduces 15 new or refreshed vehicles in the US and 17 in China.