General Motors is facing class-action lawsuits in several parts of the United States over faulty ignition switches in 1.6 million small cars worldwide. About 235,000 of those cars were sold In Canada, leading to two separate lawsuits in addition to the other suits it already faces in the United States.
Driving reports Merchant Law Group LLP filed claims against GM in Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. The suits claim GM misled owners about safety issues by hiding its knowledge about the potentially fatal ignition problems.
Transport Canada is also investigating if a faulty ignition switch in a GM vehicle was responsible for a fatal crash in Quebec last June, but a spokesperson declined to comment on whether the Canadian government plans to investigate GM’s actions in regards to the recall or not.
“As this matter is currently under investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment,” Roxane Marchand, a spokeswoman for Transport Canada said in an emailed statement to Driving.
Merchant law group is representing Christina Duquette and Jessica Schaafsma in the lawsuits, who say they “now drive their vehicles with extreme caution, fearing that they could experience a sudden, unintended engine shutdown, and risk bodily harm.” Duquette claims she experienced two engine shutdowns in her 2006 Pontiac G5 while driving between 2011 and 2013.
“General Motors had a duty to design, manufacture, and market vehicles that were reasonably safe for their intended uses, and to provide true and accurate information to the public,” Merchant’s court filing said.
Comments
Class actions are the bane of society.
It is one thing for someone to file a lawsuit if they have a good case but it is another when lawyers file to represent a group of people that really have no clue. Then the company settles the lawyers take millions in payment for their services and the so called victims they represent get a free oil change or discount on a new car they may never use.
These deals do not hurt companies as much as it hurts consumers as they end up paying for these in the end.
This is why we need tort reform in a major way.
Generally any true victim will have a solid case and will win more than enough to pay for good legal support. If there is no victim or real case then it should not go to court.
This isn’t the first time a vehicle has had this problem. I had a 83′ Datsun 280ZX that besides being rusted out completely by 1990, the engine shutdown once the engine warmed up which was about 10 minutes. The wait to start it again was 45 minutes to an hour. My remedy was to put a thermostat which did not close. I drove it like that as long as I could, maybe another two years. Sure, I was scared to pull out in traffic, but I did it quick when there was little traffic. On a lighter note, the car was a manual and daily the floor mat would get stuck under the accelerator. Being a stick, it was easy to put my foot on the clutch and pull it back out. To this day, I still catch myself doing the same with my current car (2007 GP) because of habit and superstition. Thus, I believe these lawsuits and media coverage is a bunch of nonsense. Many of the cars that have been sold through the years had problems, just now everyone makes a big deal out of it.