Faulty Transmissions: Judge Rules that GM Must Face Class-Action Lawsuit

Owners of hundreds of thousands of GM vehicles from Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC recently got the go-ahead for a class-action lawsuit against the automaker. The suit alleges that GM knowingly sold the vehicles with faulty transmissions in 26 states.

Affected vehicles include models equipped with 8L45 or 8L90 eight-speed automatic gearboxes between the 2015 and 2019 model years. Owners said their vehicles shuddered and shook in higher gears, and some said there was lurching and hesitation at lower speeds, even after the vehicles had been seen by a technician. The group also said dealers told them the hard shifts and other sensations were normal.

The list of affected models includes:

• Cadillac CTS
• Cadillac CT6
• Chevrolet Camaro
• Chevrolet Colorado
• Chevrolet Corvette
• Chevrolet Silverado
• GMC Canyon
• GMC Sierra
• GMC Yukon
• Others

General Motors argued against the suit, saying that most members in the class did not experience any problems and lacked standing in the action. The automaker also said there were too many differences between class members to justify a class-action suit. The judge disagreed, saying that buyers overpaying for defective vehicles was enough to justify their standing.

The judge also noted that “exactly how, and to what extent, each of the individual plaintiffs experienced a shudder or shift quality issue is irrelevant” to the question of whether or not GM concealed the defects from buyers. She also denied GM’s claim that some of the plaintiffs belonged in arbitration.

[Images: General Motors]

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