The new head of General Motors, Mary Barra, goes to Capitol Hill Tuesday to begin two days of testimony.
It's the first time she'll be questioned about a safety defect that's been linked to at least 13 deaths and has sparked a 2.6-million-vehicle recall.
At issue for the Detroit CEO is the classic question: What did GM know about the problems with ignition switch problems in its cars, and when did the company know it?
And just as important for GM and government regulators is the follow-up question: Why did no one act sooner?
In the recent history of General Motors, there's one car that sort of symbolizes the problems of the old GM: the Chevy Cobalt.
'A Moment Of Panic'
The car is currently the subject of about a half-dozen investigations. Even if more than 1 million Cobalts were not being recalled, the cars would still have a bad reputation, simply for not being a quality vehicle.
Scott Oldham of Edmunds.com says that's hindsight. "At the time, in the context of what GM was making before the Cobalt, it was seen, for the most part, as a giant leap forward," he says.
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A History Of GM's Ignition Switch Defect