GM’s 2Q profit falls 85 percent on recall costs

Published 9:39 am Thursday, July 24, 2014

DETROIT — General Motors says second-quarter profit fell 85 percent as recall costs chopped $1.5 billion from the bottom line.

The automaker posted a net profit of $190 million, or 11 cents per share, including restructuring and recall-related expenses. A year ago GM made $1.26 billion, or 75 cents per share.

Without one-time items GM would have made 58 cents per share, equaling Wall Street’s expectations.

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So far this year GM has recalled almost 30 million vehicles, a company record.

GM took a number of pretax charges tied to the recalls. They include $400 million to compensate victims of ignition-switch related crashes; $874 million to account for recall expenses during the next 10 years; and $1.2 billion for recalls announced during the quarter. The after-tax impact of those items was $1.5 billion.