Newly released emails suggest the auto giant General Motors ignored yet another defect in vehicles that it only recalled just this week. The 2006 Chevy Impala was recalled on Monday as part of a new recall of 3.4 million vehicles that can shut off if their keys are jarred while bearing extra weight. But in a 2005 message to nearly a dozen colleagues, GM employee Laura Andres warned about driving a 2006 Impala that had stalled. After consulting with an engineer, Andres said: “I think this is a serious safety problem, especially if this switch is on multiple programs. I’m thinking big recall.” The new recall comes on top of the earlier recalls this year of around 20 million cars, including 6.5 million for ignition switch defects that GM ignored. The defective switches have been linked to at least 13 and possibly hundreds of deaths. Appearing before a House panel investigating the GM scandal, General Motors CEO Mary Barra faced questioning from Republican Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania.

Rep. Tim Murphy: “You’ve been with the company for 30 years, right?”

Mary Barra: “I have.”

Rep. Tim Murphy: “How does someone who has spent an entire career within the culture of GM change the culture of GM? I believe there’s 210,000 employees or so at GM. You mentioned 15 were fired. That’s 99.999 percent, if my math is right, of the people are the same. If you haven’t changed the people, how do you change the culture?”

Mary Barra: “Well, again, the people — the 15 people that are no longer with the company are the people that either didn’t take action they should or didn’t work urgently enough to rectify this matter, and they are no longer part of this company.”

It was Barra’s third appearance before Congress since GM began recalling millions of cars in February.