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GM fires engineers, executives after ignition switch recall probe

Update: New story containing new information, additional details of terminations added. General Motors has dismissed 15 employees, including at least eight executives, after an internal investigation found “a pattern of incompetence and neglect” that led to 11 years of delays in recalling millions of cars for a fatal defect, CEO Mary Barra said today. Barra promised that the company would address future safety issues far differently, warning employees that failing to report risks would make them “part of the problem” and even inviting them to contact her directly if they couldn't get potential defects addressed themselves.

Smart car tipping strikes San Francisco

The Smart ForTwo: brilliantly designed to be safe, compact transport for two people and easily manoeuvred around the city. Although perhaps a little too easily manoeuvred, if what happened to four of the little blighters in San Francisco earlier this week is anything to go by. That’s not a standard parking procedure: ‘Smart car tipping’ has suddenly become a thing.

Mercedes-Benz axes Maybach

High ranking Mercedes-Benz sources have confirmed to Autoweek that the underperforming Maybach brand will be officially killed off in 2013. The decision to disband Mercedes-Benz’s upper luxury marque comes after a decade of disappointing sales for the Maybach 57 and 62 and a recent decision from the German car maker’s chairman Dieter Zetsche not to push ahead with the development replacement models – the likes of which were tentatively due out in 2014 – owing to what one insider describes as a “positive move to focus greater attention on the Mercedes-Benz brand” . “We’ve come to the conclusion that it is better to cut our losses with Maybach than to continue into an uncertain future with a brand that has failed to live up to original sales expectations," the insider said.