A class-action lawsuit filed against General Motors claiming its StabiliTrak stability control system is faulty has been thrown out.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, alleges the StabiliTrak system in 2010-2016 Chevrolet Impala and 2014-2016 Chevrolet Impala limited can cause the vehicles to pull to one side, jerk, stall and ultimately lose power. Plaintiffs sought to receive compensation from GM on the basis of fraud, violations of consumer protection laws, unjust enrichment and breach of implied warranties.
The plaintiffs claimed the issues referenced in the suit can be traced back to the wheel speed sensor wire harness, which is allegedly prone to premature wear. Damage to the wiring harness may cause the StabiliTrak to act erratically, the suit claimed, posing “grave safety dangers,” for vehicle occupants.
The lawsuit also accused GM of covering up the defect, with plaintiffs alleging the company knew about the problem due to customer complaints and other internal GM data.
To prove this, plaintiffs submitted 596 pages of customer complaints that they said pertained to the vehicles listed in the original lawsuit. The judge presiding over the case, Matthew F. Leitman, found that of those, 63 pages actually pertained to the 2007-2009 model year Chevrolet Impala, which was not mentioned in the original filing. The judge also found that “some of the complaints are vague and/or include complaints about issues that are not included in the list of symptoms that the Plaintiffs contend are caused by the StabiliTrak Defect.”
Leitman also found that some technical service bulletins that were referenced as proof GM knew about the defect were irrelevant to the case or did not indicate that GM had pre-sale knowledge of the faulty wiring harness/wheel speed sensor. In a statement, Leitman said the TSBs submitted “do not plausibly establish that GM was aware of the specific StabiliTrak Defect plaintiffs have identified.”
According to Car Complaints, the case was dismissed with prejudice, preventing the plaintiffs from amending the lawsuit in the future.
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Source: Car Complaints
Comments
Poorly filed and documented law suits cause more trouble than a law suit not filed at all. What we don’t know out of all of this, is weather or not there are faulty wiring causing erratic behavior in the suspension system, or not. The legal system and the NTSA assume that unless there are repeated very specific known failures and results of failures all linked to exactly one thing, the system is not faulty. This is even if the systems are faulty, which in a court of law appear to not be an important part of deciding a case. People who know little about automotive systems cannot, it has been shown demonstrate that faulty systems are faulty, at least not enough so, to satisfy a court of law.
I don’t think you fully understand how this goes. If you’re accusing a company of knowing about a defect and your lawsuit mainly consists of alleged paperwork proving that they were aware of aforementioned defects but the judge rules it out then it is less important whether or not there is a defect because that wasn’t the primary reason for the class action lawsuit. Once credibility is lost a judge can, will, and should throw it ALL out altogether.
This case needs refiling with proper strategy to address the technical issue and who knew what and when. I had a piece of GMC Terrain garbage that jerked and nearly caused us to get rear ended on a farm road. No one at any dealership within 100 miles could answer the question. What is the point of engine codes and service centers if they don’t what the hell they are doing? I will never again buy a General Motors product because of the experience with that vehicle. As far as I am concerned the “to big to fail” bailout grabbing GM needs to be dissolved and all product designs erased from existence. Sad that what was once an American icon of automotive excellence is now a total garbage company.
2nd Comment. Example of a faulty system that is not faulty. Mercedes Benz from 2001 through 2017 put cruise control systems into most of its cars and SUVs which are dangerous in design. The design puts a cruise control resume lever, either directly on top of or directly underneath the directional signal lever. The problem arises primarily when a person intending to signal a right hand turn or lane change, accidentally brushes the cruise control lever during the signalling attempt. The physical motion of the right turn and of the signaling is the same for both. The levers which are slightly different length in some years have led to apparently hundreds of cases of sudden unwanted acceleration of the Mercedes motor car in the United States. Mercedes received so many complaints that in 2011 it made a failed attempt to do something about the problem by reversing the levers and thus put the cruise control lever on the bottom with the directional signal on the top. Previously, it was the up and down opposite in the position of the levers. This did absolutely nothing to rectify the problem. While changing the order in which the two levers were hit or activation attempted, the sudden unwanted accelerations continued to occur as if nothing had been done in the first place. Mercedes put no warnings in its manual about this during 18 years of this problem occurring because in Europe, the same problem doesn’t exist. For some reason, the faulty design doesn’t cause European drivers the same end-result problem. However, so dangerous is the design that the company in 2017 and forward, changed the system completely by eliminating one of the offending levers altogether. The gas pedal system also was changed to eliminate spikes that can snag certain shoes, thus pinning the users foot, potentially underneath the accelerator pedal. The system was clearly changed for safety reasons, yet M-B denies that there was ever a safety reason in the first place and the government believes the company. Thus exacting proof as outline by experts in the industry, with the system being dangerous, is insufficient for the government to do anything about the danger. The public is not given a warning and the problem persists in the earlier cars. There may be some cases in which M-B still used the over under lever system, but in those systems sensors and cameras assist the driver in stopping the runaway car before the damage can be done. This is also very much like certain semi-autonomous driving systems in the Tesla in which drivers have been killed because the system failed. A law suit exists currently that has gone on for more than two years, in which Tesla accepts no responsibility for its faulty cruise control electronic system failures. It’s a pattern with law makers; the industry; etc. Even the problems with air bags killing people when they are supposed to save people has been very much the subject of litigation. The life saving devices have injured and killed a tremendous number of people and despite recalls on passenger side air bags, the same air bags on the driver’s side have not been recalled for unknown reasons. In one accident in my case. the steering wheel air bag went off and broke my breast bone in one of those Mercedes-Bemz, a 2014 model, reasonably late model car, in a C350 sport luxury car.
The wiring on these W-body’s is too thin and wimpy. Typical GM cost cutting that should not be. I had to fix my 2013 and a friends 2012 and 2013 W-body Impala’s with upgrade kits that you splice a new more robust wire into the old one up towards the front of the car and this new wire is noticeably higher quality than the think cheap junk they used. This is one of many examples where they cheapened these cars considerably from the earlier 00-05 versions eliminating the glove box light, taking away one of the rear map pockets, eliminating the power recliner on LS/LT models from 2008 on up, eliminating the gear indicator on the center console, never offering auto climate control or telescoping wheel and the cheap way the rear view mirror lights wiring was exposed going from the headliner to the mirror when a wire mold used to encase it.
They are making vehicles so cheap and flimsy it is embarrassing. Go to Europe and look at almost any car. You can easily see the better materials. Americans are accustomed to sewage thinking they have spring water. Time to wise up and send GM to total dissolution. Greed and garbage are all they know.
Here are some class action worthy safety problems that are not being addressed by GM for the 2019 Equinox that I have reported over a year ago with absolutely no answer whatsoever from GM.
1. Dangerous projector headlights that are aimed high this is blinding people coming towards me yet since they are aimed high I cannot properly see the road or whatever is in front of me and to both sides. This is for both low and high beams. The GM dealer says that these headlights cannot be adjusted at all. This ongoing problems Has been reported online a zillion times already. I have come close to a head on collision with a truck coming at me while flashing his high beams into my eyes.
2. The Bluetooth disconnects all the time so phone calls cannot be made or received through the sound system as it should be. This is another HUGE dangerous safety problem because it forces drivers to dig around and manually pick up their phones while breaking the law to answer or dial and talk to people on while driving.
3. This is a Horrible safety issue If you have pets, babies or children in the vehicle and you walk away from it with your key fob for only a few minutes the engine and air conditioning automatically shuts off which will allow the vehicle to quickly heat up and KILL any pet or person inside!
I have been trying to have GM listen to these issues and act on them for over a year now with absolutely no response back to me at all!
GM is a total garbage company. Should be dissolved and removed from the memory of America and all executives stricken from the ability to ever hold a corporate position for the rest of their natural lives.
Hi Barry C. – You know, I’ve been astonished, since I purchased my C8 Corvette, at the array and number of GM product owners, who have written in to express anger over GM’s non-responsiveness to a huge number of quality issues on the products that the company puts out. I did not realize that an old and huge company would have the decision making audacity to, “cheap-out,” on so many vehicles of such a wide variety. Of course the Chinese made wheels that they pawned off to an unsuspecting public on the Z06 and Grand Sports that so many people have complained about, must come from a company that has no conscience, whatsoever. The put out lamps that have no adjustment, makes no sense, since there are manuals for almost every car and truck and SUV, showing the adjustment procedure for headlights. Further, there are rules on the road for drivers, owners and manufacturers covering headlamps and their requirements on vehicles.
One solution, which might be cheaper in the long run, is to change your automotive company. If they are deaf to your concerns, to continue to stay with them makes less sense than trying another car company. It by no means has to be a Ford. There must be twenty competitive other automotive companies out there which can provide to you a similar vehicle or one which meets your needs. One thing I’ve noticed. People are very interested in you when you are a potential customer. Once they have your money, their interest in your seems to go away…big time! AF
Oct 29th 2020
Thanks Alex! GM just called me to let me know that all three of the safety issues I have with my 2019 Equinox are all operating as as designed and they have ZERO intention to fix any of the safety problems that thousands of people that are GM owners now have to live with every single day they get into these vehicles! This paid shill from GM was a complete jerk and a total waste of my time! I am totally disgusted with this horrible excuse for customer service that just purposely contacted me by phone to tell me straight out that they will do nothing, even though all three of these problems put many people including me in harm’s way to the point of possibly getting killed in these 2019 equinox’s do to GM’s GROSS NEGLIGENCE! and total awareness of it! I hope that a worthy law firm reads this and litigates GM with a huge class action to the point of putting them out of business! That’s how I feel about this situation and I am ready and able to help them as a witness if I am needed!
Opposites, they say attract, Barry C.. Yet, the crack Corvette team that came up with an amazing car as outlined in Road and Track, a car that might be too much, that is, all things to all people is still an incredible example of what can be done when all the amazingly skilled people come together to create a vehicle under one mark and do so surprisingly well for a first effort: the 2020 C8 Mid-Engine Corvette Stingray. Yet, the same company, Chevrolet, comes out with an array of vehicles that have so many things wrong with them and they don’t give a flying fig or anything else that falls to the ground hard. The customer suffers. No wonder Jay Leno suggested that GM spin Corvette off into its own brand. Generations of adoring fans are being flung to the side of the road with out so much as a thought to whom they are: real Americans. These opposites do not attract. They do not attract at all. People like yourself must keep adding the truth about cars, one car at a time, until something is done. This type of automobile production must stop. AF
Jay Leno is 100% right! Corvette should separate from GM since this company is now producing so so many poorly designed and defective JUNK cars and trucks while refusing to admit to their many problems with the blatant refusal to correct them! This gross negligence will get many innocent people killed both behind the wheel of their cars and trucks and the people that these vehicles will hit and kill when they fail! This situation is amazingly real and the people directing the refusal to make good to repair these defective cars and trucks need to go to prison for their Ill deeds while being quickly replaced with decision makers that care about doing the right thing and the lives of their many customers! GM is now the COVID-19 of the auto industry and this deadly virus of producing poorly designed cars and trucks is spreading fast! Real Fast!
I mentioned on this forum and others that if Corvette spun off, I’d buy stock in it. However, at the present rate, it’ll take a lot of Hummer sales to account for all the lawsuits GM will have to endure going forward. When you buy junk parts from China to invest in good hard working Americans who first pay a pretty penny for your product and then they don’t work; are unsafe; and they actually kill their customers…well, it’s time to let your feet to declare the vote. Start walking.
Have had nothing but constant issues with the stabiltrac system on my 2012 impala. After having the wiring harnesses replaced on all 4 wheel speed sensors, the wiring harness that goes over the transmission,new wheel sensors we still get service stabiltrac light! Now its turned into pressure regulator sensor along with reduced engine power and stability trac. G.M has been through this car multiple times and tells me they cannot find any issues! I can tell you what it is,CHEAP WIRING AND ELECTRONICS! After this chevy is gone NEVER AGAIN!!! THIS CAR HAS SHUT OFF WITH ME AND MY FAMILY ON BUSY ROADS AND ALMOST GOT KILLED MULTIPLE TIMES! SCREW YOU G.M. SHAME ON YOU!
Same here, and it’s scary. The dealership thought they fixed it, but nope. I don’t even know what to do now.
Cheap junk 2012 impala that has almost gotten my family killed multiple times. And the dealer found one issue with the main wiring harnesses that goes over the transmission, but it still acts of from time to time. They say in order to fix it that harness needs to be replaced, almost 1000 bucks for the harness! By the time they installed it I can go a better brand of car. Never again G.M!
I decided after my GMC Terrain stabilitrack shudder issue and horrible gas mileage that no one could resolve that GM is a TOTAL GARBAGE company. Should be dissolved and erased from American memory.