A class action lawsuit against General Motors over cracked and deformed C7 Chevy Corvette wheels continues to progress, with the latest development resulting in the claims of one plaintiff going to arbitration.
According to a recent report from Car Complaints, GM argued that the claims of plaintiff Derrol Turner should be sent to arbitration, as the plaintiff agreed to arbitration when he purchased his Chevy Corvette Grand Sport at Crews Chevrolet in South Carolina back in 2016. GM told Judge Bernard A. Friedman that the contract contains an arbitration provision which covers claims regarding the “purchase, lease, or condition of the vehicle.”
Meanwhile, the plaintiff argued that the agreement was with the GM dealer, rather than General Motors, and thus GM could not compel arbitration. However, although GM admits it is not a signatory to the purchase agreement and arbitration provision, the automaker stated that it is entitled to enforce the agreement under the principle of equitable estoppel, as the plaintiff would not hold claims against GM had he not entered into the agreement to buy his new Corvette. GM also argued that the purchase agreement delegates questions over the enforceability and scope of the arbitration to the arbitrator, which means the judge could not resolve the question regarding arbitration.
Judge Friedman subsequently ruled that GM’s motion to compel arbitration for Turner’s claims would be granted.
As GM Authority covered previously, GM is currently facing a class action lawsuit in which plaintiffs claim that units of the 2015- through 2019-model-year Chevy Corvette Z06 and 2017- through 2019-model-year Chevy Corvette Grand Sport are equipped with wheels that can crack and lose strength, thus making the wheels more prone to failure. Plaintiffs claim that GM allegedly concealed the defects in the associated Corvette wheels and systematically denied warranty coverage, thus forcing plaintiffs to pay thousands of dollars in repairs, or purchase replacement OEM wheels with the same defects as the original units.
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Comments
GM purchases the wheels from a wheel vendor. Why not also name the wheel vendor in the complaint? Just like the Japanese air bag maker.
Now sold, I.kmow I spent at least $4000 replacing wheels on my 2016 Z06. What I was being told, since I was the second owner, was that the previous owner must have driven around the pothole filled streets of Philly, where I bought it, in track mode.
Pot holes “ala mode”…where do they find these bullsh!t excuses.. If the vette was sold in “Philly” then they know about the potholes…..brother
AJ:
Get a product liability lawyer to file a complaint on a contingency fee basis against the wheel vendor. The wheel should have been made with cast austenetic Manganese.
Come on people, GM used cheap material to make the rims and have a outside vendor make them to take the responsibly off them. They were cheap wheels and I have bought 3 new sets on a 2019 GS…all of the wheels sets I had had either cracked or bent. Lots of money for a GM mistake.
Bob Butler:
Did you file a complaint with NTSB? Also the consumer complaint intake department with your state’s attorney general’s office. Make these folks go to work for you. You are paying their salaries with your tax dollars. Don’t get hornswogeled.
GM has always tried to wiggle itself of any responsibility
I have owned corvettes for the last 20 years and it has been the same way they these models ( C 4 5 6 7)
They all came with some defects that could easily be corrected instead GM chose to ignore it and let the after market come up with a solution
I now own a C 8 and keep my fingers crossed because they too have a lot of issues and once those 3/36 are over you are on your own
BUY THE EXTENDED WARRANTY AND SEE A LAWYER
I HAVE AN EXTENDED WARRANTY AND IT DOES NOT COVER WHEELS
I went thru 5 bent wheels here in WNY…only after a few thousand miles…had car tied up in dealers’ service dept more than once…and finally after 5 weeks because NO REPLACEMENTS were available I ordered a set of Forge Line Mono Forged wheels for over $5500.. dealer refused to install them..Had to drive my 2019 GS to a aftermarket shop where they were installed..Have not had a problem since……yes I joined the Class Action lawsuit…lucky if I see pennies on the $$
Low profile tires and high speeds on public streets puts a strain on the wheels I would think. Are there any issues with other makers? I owned 2 Vettes one I drove for 140000 miles and one Viper. No wheel problems.
7 replaced rims here. The defect was using cast aluminum on a low profile run flat wide wheel. It was GMS fault. Most of mine created slow leaks so I could still drive just iop off every couple days while waiting for the wheel to come in. Supply chain in nov 20 I had to park it a month as the wheel lost air too quickly. I’m not then only one
Just had a LH rear wheel failure on my 18 grand sport. No pot holes, no aggressive driving, just a crack on the inner edge Gonna cost $994 for a new wheel. How do I get in on this lawsuit?
2 cracked wheels! How do we all still get in on the class action?
DJ
Contact the South Carolina Bar Association for contact information on Judge Bernard A. Friedman. Phone his law clerk and ask for attorney information on the class. Contact the class attorney and request participation. Or have the law school in your area provide onboarding information in this action.
I work at a plant that makes forged aluminum truck wheels. Like 100k a month….We got out of making wheels for cars and cycles years ago because the companies were not willing to pay a little more for MUCH stronger yet lighter forged wheels. They were beating us up on cost. They buy cast (cheap) wheels and charge consumers thousands for cast wheels that look pretty, but are very weak. In general aluminum cast wheels made from 6061 Aliminum are 1/3 the strength of wheel forged from the same alloy. The big three source cast wheels from the east, and charge huge money for wheels. I look at very low profile cast wheels with all that air space and see an accident waiting to happen. Casting leaves voids , bubbles and cracks in the material that forging removes. But forging is more expensive. The problem is that a GM cost accountant made a decision on wheel type that an engineer should have made. Cast wheels inherently have defects. Castings usually cannot be ultrasonic tested because the inhehent internal voids won’t let u/t energy pass through. For other industries, we u/t test forgings to look for defects to approve them. Cast parts can’t have that.
typical GM. If they screw up, you pay the price. Customer satisfaction is a complete unknown to them when a massive problem like this occurs. Talk to someone unfortunate enough to have one of their 3.6 V6’s in their Lambda Platform SUV from m/y 2009 with the stretching timing chains on that year’s DOHC motor. Buick, GMC, Chevy and Saturn vehicles shared that motor and instead of a needed recall, GM’s answer was to just extend the warranty to 100k. Then there’s the infamous 5.3 valve lifter issue in trucks and high dollar SUV’s and the transmission issues in the same vehicles. When they buy and install a defective part because their bean counters have beaten-up the supplier so bad on price that the quality suffers, they refuse to take care of their customer victims.
Question I was told even if you buy and replace to forge wheels you could still have problems with bends and cracks just not as much any feedback appreciated.
One cracked rim and one bent rim on my 2019 Grand Sport with less than 8000 gentle miles, while still under warranty. Gm says F-off. This will be my last GM vehicle.