A class action lawsuit has been filed against General Motors, LLC. in the Superior Court of California County of San Diego. The suit alleges, among other things, that the Chevrolet MyLink infotainment system “would be available in the fall of 2011 in connection with 2012 model year Equinox vehicles, but nonetheless allegedly was not ready to mass produce and/or install on 2012 Equinox vehicles until a few short months ago.”
The suit, styled Michael Brewer v. General Motors, LLC et al, pursues General Motors, as well as Courtesy Chevrolet Center — a Chevrolet dealer in San Diego, in the initial announcement and subsequent delays in the availability of MyLink: the system was first officially announced in February of 2011 for a “Fall 2012 availability“, as stated on the brand’s website, press releases, vehicle catalogs, and dealership materials. The system, however, did not appear in the fall and was instead delayed until spring of 2012.
Those who purchased a 2012 Equinox expecting MyLink have expressed dissatisfaction in not being informed of the unavailability by Chevrolet/General Motors and/or their dealer. The complaint asserts claims for the following alleged causes of action: violation of the California consumers legal remedies act, alleged commission of unlawful or unfair business practices and false advertising while the Plaintiff seeks declaratory, equitable and injunctive relief, general damages, special damages and actual damages, rescission and restitution, incidental and consequential damages, punitive damages, statutory damages, an award of reasonable attorneys fees and costs and pre judgment interest at the legal rate.
Comments
Well…..this is a salesman or dealership’s fault for not properly advising their customers of the delay before the sale……..dumb
Problem is, the dealers weren’t made aware of the delay until after some folks have purchased theirs expecting MyLink:
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2011/12/chevy-delays-mylink-infotainment-system-to-spring-2012/
WOW….in Canada we were aware and also knew that this is not standard equipment either. Therefore we told ppl of the delay and that it was a upgrade. Which is dumb….it costs….what…..a LOUSY 300.00 more…make it standard why confuse ppl
Bad management… Bad Dealer Network= bad consumer experience= Consumer looking else where for next vehicle or just flat out sueing..,
Where did these people buy the vehicle at amazon.com. They should have gone to a Chevy dealer they will let you look at it before you buy it. And you can drive it before you sign any thing. Someday the will be the industry standard.
I disagree…part of the fun of buying a new car is taking it home and cracking open the owner’s manual to explore all the new features. Most times sales people don’t even know how to access all the features of some of these newer cars. Trust me, I just bought a Volt last spring and there are still features within the nav/audio system I have yet to master.
My opinion is that GM was absolutely wrong to correctll the advertising. It was their duty to make 100% sure that people buying the early 2012’s were aware of the variation from print and online technical specs.
Had the car been sold on Amazon, then I’m sure the user reviews would have nipped this in the bud FWIW. Would love to bypass the whole dealership “experience” if I could. A lot of help the dealerships were in this situation.
I’ve been looking at purchasing a GMC Terrain. I haven’t found one with mylink yet and it does clearly show that some should have been available.
How STUPID are these people. Did they order it???? If they did, the vehicle could not have been built.
Mikeee,
You could not be more wrong. I ordered my vehicle (2012 Equinox), and specifically made them call out the “Mylink” feature on my actual Purchase Order that was signed by the dealership. My vehicle came without it, and I was told there would be a software update to fix the missing functionality. This obviously turned out to be a lie, and nothing has been done to fix the issue. GM absolutely did knowingly build the vehicle w/o Mylink, and sold it to me as if it was what I ordered. I can assure you, myself as well as the gentleman who filed this claim, are not stupid.
Frivolous lawsuit is frivolous.
Would you like to qualify that statement? I give a 0 percent chance you’ve actually read the complaint.
It sounds to me like they are complaining that the engineers and marketing people too long to deliver the goods. It would not be the first time that something in the auto industry was delayed for whatever reason, and I highly doubt it will be the last. Chances are it will be settled out of court.
I completely agree that it will probably be settled out of court. However, I don’t think that the complaint is about a delay in the delivery of goods. The “goods” were already being advertised as being available on the 2012 Equinox as far back as February 2011. I think it is more about the fact that GM and dealerships (perhaps at the direction of GM) represented the first wave of 2012 Equinox vehicles coming off the line as being available with the Mylink system, which they were not – even if a consumer explicitly asked for that feature. When people started to notice this, they claimed to have a software update to remedy the issue, which they did not. For consumer who purchased a 2012 Equinox in late 2011 or early 2012, there is no way to have Mylink retrofitted to thier vehicles, so unless they get a new Equinox, they will never have it – in a sense, the “goods” will never be delivered. I think this claim is about misrepresentation of a product to make a sale, which consumers in CA are protected against. Furthermore, it reads that the plaintiff put fourth an extensive effort to allow GM/dealership to fix the problem before taking it this far. It looks like this was a last resort. Personally, I don’t see that as being “frivolous”.
Point taken.
To all commenting here on the stupidity of buyers take a look at the February 2011 Engadget video on Chevy Mylink where both GM’s vice president of marketing and Micky Bly, GM’s head of engineering, spend an hour heralding the fall arrival of MyLink with all it’s hands free, safe driving experience.
This is no mere miscommunication of people at local dealerships. It was a year long marketing campaign that contined late into the fall with false press releases and false Mylink promotion on the Chevy website. Those are facts in my case and as stated in the class action–google class action suits for Equinox MyLink.
So do your fact checking before you make your ” stupid” comments showing your own depravity of thought and insensitivity to those who we’re swindled out of their money. By summer of last year there was no way for Chevy engineering to come with the radio hardware and interface to the car’s computer that was clearly needed. They just did not tell upper management and/or notiify dealerships like my own that they could not deliver this standard feature on my model..
I took delivery of a 2012 Equinox in November of 2011. I spent numerous hours looking at the options, especially when it came to the radio. When I went to the 5 different dealers I visited before making a purchase, I clearly indicated the difference between the brochure, the ads, and the unit in the units they had for sale. I was told by all 5 dealers that it would be a software upgrade, but sadly did not make it a part of my contract with them. When you look at the radio, if you do not know what you are looking for, they look pretty much identical, the most notable absence being the Pandora app. But in reality, there is a lot of functionality difference when it comes to hands free operation, apps, etc.
My radio is an “Intellink” unit, not a MyLink. Chevy should have made that clear to dealers and customers. Instead they splashed the MyLink marketing everywhere, did not educate their dealer network, and were just generally very misleading to us as customers. My radio has a USB “Software Update” choice in it that I would like to think may actually be of use in some way one day, but I am not holding out much hope.
I have learned to use my radio with my iPhone, but am saddened to say that when I get in a friends Ford vehicle, I must hang my head low in shame of my Chevy’s radio and how they treated me after I purchased a $35,000 vehicle. If I could join the class action lawsuit I would. In a heartbeat.
Dennis — I feel your pain. Has any progress been made on this from GM’s end? Just curious…
Also, I think the radio you have isn’t IntelliLink — which is the Buick/GMC equivalent to MyLink; I think yours is simply the Color Touch Radio.
Agree completely my 2012 Equinox does every single thing that the actual mylink does with the exception of streaming audio. I was also told about a software upgrade. I even went as far as finding out the part numbers from GM that were the systems that included mylink but was warned it would violate my warranty. I don’t have the Nav version but do use OnStar so it really doesn’t matter. I am angry that GM didn’t honor what I was told ..
I wish I saw this before I went out an purchased a 2012 Equinox less than a week ago. I went to a Chevy dealer in San Jose to purchase a 2012 Equinox. During the process of purchasing the car, far past into credit checking and such, he brought up how the car was MyLink and even showed me a webpage showing what myLink does.
Later on I realized he confused MyLink and OnStars RemoteLink. When I told him that the car doesn’t have MyLink, he said I am confusing it with Onstar’s MyLink, yet there is no app called Onstar Mylink. That was renamed more than a year ago I believe based on web searches. His wording caused me to have a car that doesn’t have MyLink. I don’t mind paying more for a feature I didn’t get, but my understanding is that you can’t upgrade it to have MyLink
Moises,
You must have the new mid year 2012 Equinox. Based on a discussion of the Volt http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?15552, I now believe the new midyear Equinox model has blue tooth in the radio itself and not in the Onstar system overhead. There is no software or hardware upgrade since the whole harnessing and Onstar radio arrangement is different. There is also a class action suit in California you can join if you are really ticked.
If you followed the Olympics, Chevy was promoting their “Love it or return it in 60 day’s policy”. If it is a new car, I would not stop complaining until you get the current mid year model. http://gmauthority.com/blog/2012/07/chevrolet-confidence-program-allows-consumers-to-return-a-vehicle/
My system does everything a Mylink does with the exception of streaming audio like Pandora. I was told it would be a software upgrade when I bought my 2012 Equinox and all the brochures and even the website today states that the 2012 Equinox is equipped with MyLink. I contacted the Infotainment customer service and was told that I do have Mylink but I was told by my dealer that my vehicle build sheet shows it does not. This went back and forth and finally GM just put it in my record. Please add me to the lawsuit or better yet, anyone know where that upgrade software patch may be located? My system tells me to upgrade through my USB port.
I own a 2011 Camaro SS and loving it but never expected that a muscle car would ever have such an awesome multimedia system. The frustration of not being able to install Mylink on older vehicles (before 2013) apparently hunts every GM customer on the planet. Almost every car manufacturer gives the privilege of upgrading the car system at a significant cost except GM! Incompatibility of hardware and software is just a clear indication of bad marketing strategy and weak customer retention. The catastrophe is when this issue is communicated to GM customer service they tend to ignore it. By far the only way to have Mylink is to get a newer model of the car which in other words mean, to trade in your 2011 or 2012 with a 2013 or 2014! The agony of such way is that it crushes the car value by few thousands of dollars which is not feasible and invaluable to the customer! GM must address this issue ASAP as majority of customers are so upset of such horrible business attitude and strategy!!
Chevy website states the 2012 comes standard with mylink in the equinox and as owner logging into my chevy learn about my vehicle, it states it has my link. Which is it gm?
What about those people who bought used 2012 equinox? I wasn’t told a thing about mylink.
Does anyone know how to join this lawsuit. I too bought a 2012 Equinox and was told there would be an upgrade that never came. It was one of the selling points for buying the 2012 over the then greatly reduced 2011’s that were being “moved to make room” for the new 2012’s. We were all lied to, especially those of us that bought in late 2011 before they actually said the my link wouldn’t be available until mid 2012. There should be some sort of recompense.