General Motors to pay Iowa $1.5 million in safety defect settlement

General Motors will pay Iowa $1.5 million as part of a multistate settlement over whether the carmaker hid defects in its vehicles.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller announced the settlement Thursday.

If approved by a judge, the settlement would resolve an investigation into General Motors 'failure to timely disclose” defects related to ignition switches. Those problems affected more than nine million vehicles in the United States, Miller's office said in a news release.

The defects meant an ignition switch, under certain conditions, could go from a running position to an off position, Miller's office said. If that occurred, systems such as power steering and brakes, and sometimes air bags, would stop working.

The states claimed employees of General Motors knew of the defects as early as 2004, but the company did not immediately issue recalls.

Overall, Detroit-based General Motors has agreed to pay $120 million to 49 states and the District of Columbia. General Motors did not admit or concede wrongdoing in the settlement, the court filing shows.

Iowa's share of the multistate settlement will go to the state's consumer education and litigation fund.

l Comments: (319) 398-8366; matthew.patane@thegazette.com