GM ordered new switches months before recall, WSJ reports Half a million replacement ignition switches were ordered by General Motors almost two months before it alerted federal safety regulators of the issues that led to a recall of millions of vehicles, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing email exchanges between the automaker and Delphi Automotive . The email exchanges, which took place in mid-December 2013 between a GM contract worker and Delphi, indicate GM placed an "urgent" order for 500,000 replacement switches on December 18, a day after a meeting of senior executives.