GM’s Barra Bringing Legacy of Safety Fights to Congress

General Motors Co.’s Mary Barra will bring corporate baggage to Washington when she testifies before Congress this week: GM’s history of contentious battles over vehicle safety stretching back 50 years to the Corvair.

Less than three months into her tenure as chief executive officer, Barra, 52, faces a grilling starting tomorrow over vehicles linked to the deaths of 13 people. The automaker has recalled about 2.6 million cars after revelations that an ignition flaw caused models including Chevrolet Cobalts to lose power. Last week, the company added 559,000 trucks and 200,000 Cruze compact cars to the recall for different safety issues, bringing the global total for this year to about 5.1 million vehicles. Lawmakers want to know why GM, though aware of the ignition problems in 2001, didn’t recall the cars earlier.