( CNN ) -- General Motors is under fire following its delayed decision to recall 2.6 million cars over a faulty ignition switch . The automotive giant 's CEO says she is `` deeply sorry '' for 13 deaths caused by the defect . In isolation that 's bad enough . But it 's been exacerbated by another recall , this time of 1.3 million vehicles beset by a potentially dangerous power steering problem . Critics might say it 's hardly unexpected from a company that took a $ 49.5 billion U.S. Government bailout in 2008 and ended up costing the US tax payer $ 10.5 billion . Apologists claim that if General Motors had been allowed to wither and die , it would have cost the US in the region of $ 66 billion . Probably more important is the potential human toll -- an industrial apocalypse like this would have wreaked on GM 's 212,000-strong global work force . Then there are the millions of employees working for the various suppliers who would also have suffered . But was saving General Motors , and thereby condemning it to more of the same , really the triumph that some ( mainly blinkered GM management ) claimed ? In 2013 , General Motors ' global sales were up 4 % compared with the previous year . That 's in a market of worldwide vehicle sales that was up 7 % . GM 's big rival Ford 's global sales increased by 12 % over the same period . General Motors has multiple problems and none of them is new . Lack of positive image and identity is one . Hear the words General and Motors together in the UK and it 's usually because of mass redundancies or a factory being shut . Of its brands , Vauxhalls are insipid and to sell in the required volumes they are heavily discounted and sold to rental firms , a killer for models ' retained values that increasingly savvy consumers now consider . Then there 's Chevrolet . The decision to import the latest iterations of Camaros and Corvettes -- cars more worthy of the bowtie badge than the Sparks and Aveos we 've currently got , coincided with a GM directive to withdraw Chevrolet from the UK by the end of 2015 . To calm a nervy dealer network , prices in January were slashed by up to 42 % . You could buy a Chevy Captiva seven-seat SUV for Â£12,295 ( $ 20,460 ) , the sort of money that barely buys a decently equipped three-door Volkswagen Polo . Unsurprisingly at that sort of money dealers have n't struggled . Chevrolet 's February sales were up 114 % proving what Korean firms have known all along : workmanlike products will sell if priced correctly . Such business blunders abound . Twenty years ago , General Motors became the first major car manufacturer in the modern era to mass produce an electric car . It wanted to prove the viability of the project by inviting drivers to become one of 50 to lease the Impact electric vehicle . The project leader anticipated 80 applicants . In Los Angeles there were 10,000 . In New York 14,000 . There was evidently an appetite for electric cars . GM shelved the Impact . Management admits that now its zero and low emissions vehicle technologies have fallen behind rivals . Defeat from the jaws of victory and symptomatic of a company lacking the vision now required to compete at the cutting edge of car manufacturing . GM used to own Swedish car firm Saab . In 2008 it finished development on the 9-4X , a competent SUV designed primarily for the US market . It was the sort of car that should turn a decent profit margin , perfect to help re-fill a cash-strapped company 's depleted coffers . GM did n't launch the car until 2011 . Three years can be more than half a car 's life : the 9-4X was past-it before anyone outside GM and Saab even drove it . You can almost hear the mirth from boardrooms in Germany , Japan , Korea and even China . But could that be GM 's salvation ? As a Brit who has watched an entire car industry slip into foreign hands I can tell you overseas ownership has n't been too bad at making viable businesses out of MINI , Rolls-Royce , Jaguar , Land Rover and Bentley . A fresh culture could be equally positive for GM . Successive American management teams have had their chance and at least 13 people have lost their lives . GM might be too big to die . It 's not too big to be run properly by a foreign company . Read more : The 57-cent part at the center of GM 's recall crisis . Read more : 7 takeaways from GM recall hearing . Read more : GM stock is in the gutter . Time to buy ?
James Foxall says General Motors has multiple problems and none of them is new . Lack of positive image and identity is one of them , he writes . Comment: