GM Says Its Recall Binge Is "Substantially" Over

CEO Mary Barra says General Motors Co. has "substantially completed" a record run of recalls triggered in February by its belated discovery of flawed ignition switches linked to at least 13 deaths.

Since then GM has announced 68 recalls including two small ones Thursday covering more than 29 million vehicles built in North America in the past 17 years. The campaigns have covered groups of vehicles ranging from 25 units to nearly 6.6 million.

GM is prepared to spend as much as $600 million to compensate victims of crashes linked to faulty ignition switches in 2.6 million of those vehicles. The company also may face larger claims of lost value by owners of the cars.

Barra says GM has benchmarked such zero-defect industries as aerospace and nuclear power. She also describes the company's policy about future defects in no uncertain terms.

"If at any point in time we learn there's an issue, we're going to put the customer in the center," she declares. "We're going to take care of the issue. And if that means a recall, we'll do a recall."