Class Action Lawsuit Targets Gas Mileage of Older GM Crossovers

It looks like a gas card mailout didn’t take all the heat off of General Motors.

After compensating owners of its full-size 2016 crossovers in the wake of the recent fuel economy controversy, a class action lawsuit filed in a California court is pointing the finger at older models and demanding the automaker pay up.

Back in May, GM revealed an “inadvertent error” caused incorrect EPA fuel economy ratings to show up in the window stickers of 2016 Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia crossovers. The stickers overstated the vehicles’ mileage by one to two miles per gallon. After a stop sale order, a label swap and the hasty rollout of a customer compensation plan, GM’s woes weren’t over.

A report in Consumer Reports questioned the fuel economy readings of older versions of the afflicted models, which have the same powertrain as new models. The publication looked back at previous tests and found the real-world mileage of the models were two to three miles per gallon below their EPA rating, or similar to the revised economy of the 2016 models.

The class action lawsuit, first revealed by GMInsideNews, targets 2009–2016 versions of the Lambda platform triplets and accuses GM of “deceptive marketing.” The suit alleges the models don’t achieve the advertised 19 mpg combined fuel economy rating, and that the automaker essentially charged a “price premium” for the vehicles.

The plaintiff and class members’ argument is the same one laid out by Consumer Reports — that the older vehicles “all have substantially the same engines, weights, sizes and shapes and, thus, should achieve substantially identical gas mileage.”

Because the suit covers millions of vehicles sold since “at least the beginning of 2009,” potential damages are pegged at more than $5 million.

In response to the report questioning the mileage of its older vehicles, GM stated that “no other models or model years were affected.”

[Source: GMInsideNews]