Very little time remains for owners of affected GM vehicles to get their part of the settlement the automaker agreed to, covering dangerously faulty ignition switches in certain Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Saturn vehicles.
Residents of Canada who owned or leased any of the recalled vehicles need to file their settlement claim prior to June 6th, 2025 in order to be eligible for payment.
GM Canada settled the class action lawsuit at the end of July 2024. The settlement established a fund of CAD $12 million to cover the individual payouts, which vary according to a wide range of factors. These factors include the specific recall as well as any taxes and expenses the eligible owners incurred, and the number of people included.
The latest settlement is one in a series stretching back for years. GM has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars, though it has agreed to do so without admitting that the affected ignition switches are defective. Instead, the settlements are offered to end the possibility of future litigation.
The defect is alleged to be a serious one in which the driver can switch off the ignition while the vehicle is in motion by jostling it with their knee or thigh. The controls are completely disabled by this, and the airbags will no longer deploy, leading to the possibility of a crash with the resulting injuries possibly made worse by the failure of the airbag safety systems.
The total number of vehicles recalled is in excess of 2.6 million units. The affected ignition switches are much more sensitive than regulations call for, with less than 10 N-cm of torque needed to shut the vehicle off. This is light enough for a large keychain swinging back and forth to cause the vehicle to turn off. By law, ignition switches must be made to require 10 N-cm to 20 N-cm of torque to get them to switch modes.
The current settlement is for the “Ignition Switch, Key Rotation, Camaro Knee-Key and Electronic Power Steering” recalls, which include the following vehicles:
Delta Ignition Switch Recall
2003 – 2007 Saturn Ion
2005 – 2006 Pontiac Pursuit
2005 – 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt
2006 Pontiac G5 Pursuit
2006 – 2010 Pontiac Solstice
2006 – 2011 Chevrolet HHR
2007 – 2009 Saturn Sky
2007 – 2010 Pontiac G5
Key Rotation Recall
1997 – 2005 Chevrolet Malibu
1998 – 2002 Oldsmobile Intrigue
1999 – 2004 Oldsmobile Alero
1999 – 2005 Pontiac Grand Am
2000 – 2005 Cadillac Deville
2000 – 2007 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
2000 – 2013 Chevrolet Impala
2003 – 2014 Cadillac CTS
2004 Buick Regal
2004 – 2006 Cadillac SRX
2004 – 2008 Pontiac Grand Prix
2005 – 2009 Buick Allure
2006 – 2011 Cadillac DTS
2006 – 2011 Buick Lucerne
Camaro Knee-Key Recall
2010 – 2014 Chevrolet Camaro
Electric Power Steering
2004 – 2006 Chevrolet Malibu Maxx
2004 – 2006 / 2008-2009 Chevrolet Malibu
2004 – 2007 Saturn Ion
2005 – 2006 Pontiac Pursuit
2005 – 2006 / 2008-2009 Pontiac G6
2005 – 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt
2006 Pontiac G5 Pursuit
2007 – 2010 Pontiac G5
2008 – 2009 Saturn Aura
2009 – 2010 Chevrolet HHR
The lawsuits claim that 124 people have been killed by the consequences of the ignition switch defect. Furthermore, 257 people have been injured sufficiently to require medical treatment, with 18 of the injuries serious, according to the plaintiffs’ claims.
Comments
It never cease to amaze me that governments and their court systems (the US and Canada in this case) allow and even enable large deep- pocketed, politically well-connected companies who have manufactured and sold products so defective that they. have killed hundreds of citizens and injured many more, to settle cases by simply paying off consumers. And never admitting fault. Essentially by dragging cases out for so many years / decades that the victims die or become too exhausted to pursue a just verdict against the clearly guilty party.
By deep pocketed you mean lying lawyers right? 3rd party testing showed that all the claims in the suit were false, no loss of control, had to basically hit a brick wall to have anything shut off (not a speed bump as claimed) and MT verified the 3rd party testers, and had to hit a speed pump so hard that they caught air and damaged the front lip to force the car to jostle the key lose, and even then didn’t loose control of the car.
Also, you are aware that of every single “fatality” that was attributed to this, there wasn’t a single instance that didn’t involve substance abuse. It can’t be verified that all the injuries were attributed to this either, most involved substance abuse, no real method of testing if the key automatically dislodged or if it was actuated by the driver. All scientifically tested methods mentioned above came back as not an issue.
Maybe why as a society we don’t move past this is while sure a portion of us think GM and other OEM’s are at fault, most of us think the problem actually lies in our justice system. I’m actually for cracking down on lawyers more than GM as they keep the drunks out on the street and their pockets lined with our money and produce absolutely “0” usable GDP.
Also most were driving recklessly, speeding and under the influence.
C8LOVR,
That is how Trump has conducted business his whole entire life.
Trump won’t pay one of his contractors for a job they did, so they sue Trump. Trump then will file a frivolous lawsuit against the contractor. When Trump is found liable and ordered to pay, by the courts, he then files appeals.
All this time the contractor is spending his time and his money trying to get paid. Frustrated and realizing he can’t outspend Trump they finally give up and walk away without being paid.
Trump did this so often he started having a hard time hiring contractors in New York. Trump screws everybody that is the type of person he is.
What on earth are you kicking the ignition while driving for anyway? And large key chains heavy enough to make an issue are your own problem, ought to be called “unlawful modifications of the vehicle ignition system resulting in a risk of injury or death to operators and bystanders/other motorists.”
Overloaded keychains are the #1 cause for ignition switch failure. Which will get the car stuck/cause loss of power anyways even on the best of switches
When one has more keys on a key ring than the rappers had gold chains around their necks, what do you expect?
C8 loser still can’t get over TDS Your therapist will get rich. Worked for DJT 21 years never missed a paycheck or my Christmas Bonus.