(Bloomberg) — More than seven years before GeneralMotors Co. began the biggest wave of auto recalls in history,an investigator for Vanguard Car Rental USA Inc. contacted thecarmaker about a fatal rollover crash in California.

A driver in a new Chevrolet Cobalt rented from Vanguard's Alamounit lost control on a warm, dry and clear day in September 2006.Traffic had been light, according to the police report. The sedandrifted across lanes, got caught in a gravel median and rolledover. The seat belt was buckled. The air bag didn't deploy. Thedriver was killed.

A Vanguard claims adjuster wrote to GM and said even though thecause of the crash wasn't immediately known, “due to the seriousnature of this accident we feel that it is imperative that you opena claim and inspect this vehicle for possible defects,” accordingto a review of documents obtained by Bloomberg News after a Freedomof Information Act request.

Vanguard wasn't alone in its concern. GM customer-service calltranscripts, warranty records, letters and police reports showEnterprise Holdings Inc. was pressing the largest U.S. automakerabout a potential Cobalt defect because air bags failed in routinecrashes. Enterprise in 2007 bought Vanguard's Alamo and Nationalbrands. Avis Budget Group Inc. and Hertz Global Holdings Inc. alsohad Cobalts in their fleets that crashed.

“If there is a canary in the coal mine, it's the rental carcompanies,” said Maryann Keller, an industry consultant who was aboard member at Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. from 2000 to2012. “They were the first users of the vehicles en masse.”

Missed Opportunities

The files obtained are among scores exchanged between GM and theU.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over aneight-year period beginning in 2005 related to cars stalling andair bags not deploying in crashes. In the files GM submitted, therewere 30 crashes involving 37 fatalities in the Cobalt and theSaturn Ion. The victims' names were redacted.

The documents add to the evidence that GM for at least a decadefailed to promptly resolve a wave of complaints from rental-carcompanies, consumers, automotive reviewers and even its own dealersand mechanics about abnormal crashes that have since been linked toa faulty ignition switch.

The files show many missed opportunities to ask questions andconnect disparate events — the very type of evidence that issupposed to be routed to and vetted by the government's EarlyWarning Reporting system for potential automotive defects.

Follow Up

There's no indication in the files whether GM did or didn'tfollow through with the vehicle inspection requested by Vanguard inthe Barstow, California, incident. GM also told NHTSA that theremay not be sufficient information to assign cause to the crash.

Alan Adler, a company spokesman, declined to discuss specificcases for this story. He said the automaker has modified how ithandles product defect questions raised by rental-car companies andother fleet customers.

GM ordered recalls early this year for the Cobalt, Ion and fourother U.S. models. The automaker has since said that those cars —about 2.6 million of them — may have had faulty ignition switchesthat when bumped could shut off engines while driving and disableair bags.

By the end of June, the number of cars in North America that GMhad called back for repairs related to the ignitions had passed 16million, more than the 9.71 million vehicles the Detroit-basedcompany sold worldwide in 2013.

Unfamiliar Drivers

The role of rental cars in the GM ignition-switch controversyhasn't been fully examined. Rental cars tend to be driven a lot ofmiles. They're used by different drivers all the time, many of whomare unfamiliar with the vehicle. That can be the difference insurviving and perishing in an emergency situation, said ClarenceDitlow, executive director of the Washington-based research groupCenter for Auto Safety.

“The Cobalt was a popular, cheap model for rental-carcompanies,” Ditlow said. “This highlights why they should bevigilant about handling recalls.”

The flaw in the Cobalt, Ion and four other models has been shownto result in stalling, sudden loss of braking and steering anddisabling of the air bags.

Enterprise Crashes

A woman and her ex-husband were killed in a March 2005 crash inBee Cave, Texas, after she lost control of a Saturn Ion on a ruralroad. Their teenage daughter, riding in the back seat, sufferedserious injuries including brain damage. A police officer on thescene attributed the crash to a braking and steering defect.

The car's owner, Enterprise, noting potential lawsuits, asked GMfor an investigation, including an inspection of the car, accordingto a Saturn customer-assistance center summary.

A July 2005 letter, two months after the initial back-and- forthbetween Enterprise and GM, shows Enterprise's contractor ELCOtelling GM it had the vehicle inspected and didn't find a defect ormalfunction.

In a January 2006 crash in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, thepolice report indicated air bags didn't deploy after a 2006 Cobaltrented from Enterprise slipped off the road and hit a tree, killingthe driver.

There was an extended effort to gather information about thecrashes, including from the rental companies and the broaderconsumer fleets. None of the inquiries from NHTSA or the responsesfrom GM gave the agency enough evidence to open a formal defectinvestigation, a step that could have prompted regulators to ordera recall.

The records show that GM's customer service unit referred thecase to an investigations unit. There are no records included thatshow what happened after that.

GM Reorganization

As part of changes implemented following the ignition- switchrecall that started in February, a claim that may involve apotential safety issue is now taken to the newly establishedEmerging Issues team under GM's global safety division, GM's Adlersaid in an e-mail.

The automaker has reorganized its engineering department in aneffort to speed up the handling of potential safety risks and madechanges to the legal department in an effort to make sure issuesare better communicated than in the past.

NHTSA also has been under scrutiny for missing signs of thebroader ignition-switch failures and passing on opening a formaldefect investigation in 2007 and again in 2010. The U.S.Transportation Department's inspector general, Calvin Scovel,is reviewing the agency's actions. Transportation Secretary AnthonyFoxx said he asked for the review after questions raised by membersof Congress, the public and the media.

Senate Hearings

Senator Claire McCaskill, the Missouri Democrat who has presidedover two hearings grilling GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra,said in July she will hold another hearing to examine theregulator's handling of the recall. Legislation to improvegovernment oversight of the auto industry is expected, shesaid.

NHTSA's investigation into GM's actions showed the company hadevidence of a safety defect that it hid from governmentinvestigators, the agency's acting administrator, David Friedman,said in an e-mailed statement.

“GM knew about the safety defect for years, did not report it asrequired by law and did not take action to protect Americans fromthat defect until earlier this year,” he said.

Panel Review

“GM's decision-making, structure, process, and corporate culturestood in the way of safety at a time when airbags were failing towork properly in millions of GM products,” he said.

The comments echo what Friedman told Congress in April, when hesaid the agency would have acted sooner if it had known that GMredesigned its ignition switch in 2006. When an agency panelreviewed information about the Cobalt and Ion in 2007, the cars'failure rates didn't stand out compared with their peers, hesaid.

The case files obtained by Bloomberg News show exchanges betweenNHTSA and GM covering 81 crashes. The inquiries were part of theagency's “Early Warning” system, which by its nature sweeps up alot of disparate information. Not all of the cases are clearly tiedto the ignition-switch defect.

NHTSA asked for more information about fatalities that may haveinvolved air-bag failures. Agency investigators never took the nextlogical step: opening a formal investigation that may havepinpointed a safety defect years before GM itself acted.

At least nine cars owned by rental-car companies are in thecrash files as part of investigators' evaluation of air-bagfailures.

Pennsylvania Accident

In the 2006 Bucks County incident, an Enterprise claims adjusterasked GM “to set up a claim for a possible defect in the 2006Chevrolet Cobalt that they rented to a customer,” according to calltranscripts from the automaker. “Party of deceased wants vehicleinspected for defects. The air bags did not deploy and the policereport states the deceased hit tree for unknown reason.”

The police report indicates the possibility of distraction,driving too fast and over correcting or under correcting on acurve. Roads were wet from rain but the pavement wasn't cold enoughto freeze.

“Manufacturer indicates that their investigation did not includean assessment of the alleged defect,” NHTSA's February 9, 2007,summary of the case file says. Agency investigators found twocomplaints and seven field reports relating to air-bagfailures.

'Test Fleet'

Christine Cavallini, a spokeswoman for Enterprise in St. Louis,said the company couldn't locate records related to the crashesthat occurred eight and nine years ago. There isn't enoughidentifying information in the case files redacted by thegovernment, she said.

Cavallini said she isn't aware that Enterprise hadany general safety issues involving the Cobalt orIon.

Attempts to contact lawyers for the victims weren't successfulbecause of the age of the cases and the redacted identificationinformation.

The documents obtained by Bloomberg do show directcorrespondence by an Enterprise contractor to GM about the Texascrash, and phone calls between GM and Enterprise about thePennsylvania incident.

Keller, the former Dollar Thrifty director, said the warningsfrom the rental car companies should have been a red flag toGM.

“It's really like a test fleet,” she said. “You put a lot ofmiles on very quick, and any initial defects on the car rise to thesurface, and, in fact, that's the way auto companies were supposedto use this. They were supposed to be able to detect defects veryearly.”

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