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This blog isn’t really about health care and the need for an improved and expanded Medicare for all for life system, as my writings normally are. But it is about corporate greed and willful disregard for the lives of millions of people. Today I am angry about how GM put me and everyone who rode in my car in danger even as my husband remained loyal to the US car maker.

Our 2004 Malibu Maxx is part of the massive recall announced by GM. Well, surprise, surprise, surprise. GM says our car may have serious power steering problems. We found that out ourselves as we experienced alarms signals and lights along with frightening disruptions in steering that no mechanic was able to accurately diagnose or fix until after I found a service advisory and numerous consumer comments on the web that seemed to echo the problems we were having with the car.

We would be driving along, usually at highway speed, when all the dashboard alarm signals would light up and sound. Then for just a few terrifying seconds, and sometimes after a sharp jerk to the left or right, the car was not steerable. Then all would return to normal. It was scary and difficult to replicate for mechanics. At first, the mechanics checked other systems and over the course of several months, we had that car in the shop several times and seemed to be replacing parts to the tune of $300 or $400 every time we took it in. Then the problem would happen again. When I finally found the service advisory on the web, the mechanic worked on the power steering system, and we haven’t had the problem again. More than $2,000 in repair bills later, we think the car is now fixed.

The money spent is bad enough. But it is also so frightening that we could have had a serious or even fatal accident in the car that clearly GM knew was having steering issues long before the recall was announced. We do not know if we will get some or all of the money lost back. We do know those who lost family members and friends to defective GM cars can never recover those lost. It’s really awful.