General Motors is facing a complex legal case in Brazil over a safety test of the Chevy Onix, in which the Attorney General’s Office of that country has requested federal charges against the subsidiary GM Brazil.
Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF, of Ministério Público Federal) has just confirmed its request for GM Brazil to be condemned for alleged “collective moral damage” for manufacturing and marketing the first-generation Chevy Onix, which the institution has classified as “unfit for use” in the South American country. The MPF asked a Federal Court to condemn the carmaker in a legal case initiated in 2020 over the Onix’s low rating in the Latin NCAP safety test.
Specifically, the Brazilian Attorney General’s Office accuses GM Brazil of producing around one million units of the first-gen Chevy Onix hatchback produced between 2012 and January 14th, 2018, claiming that “the vehicle was not safe for consumers.” The federal charges requested by the MPF range from a general recall of the vehicle to “make the necessary repairs on the sides of the vehicle at no cost,” to a compensation fine of almost R$2.5 billion.
As such, should the arguments and federal charges presented by the prosecution be accepted by the Court, GM Brazil could pay a minimum percentage of five percent of the total gross revenues obtained by the company from the sale of the Chevy Onix until early 2018. According to calculations by the Brazilian media Auto Esporte, this would be equivalent to about $2.5 billion reais or roughly $435 million USD at the current exchange rate.
The MPF case against GM Brazil began almost five years ago and is based on the zero-star rating obtained by the Chevy Onix in 2017 during the side-impact test by Latin NCAP, which acts independently and is not a regulatory entity – a role played by Brazil’s INMETRO. GM will appeal the prosecution’s request and is facing the trial by claiming that the first-generation Onix met all safety requirements under Brazilian law.
“General Motors does not comment on cases that are in progress in justice,” said GM Brazil Communications Department. “However, it is important to highlight that the vehicle in question fully meets the technical specifications required by Brazilian legislation, including all vehicle standards and regulations in force,” the company added.
Comments
Good for Brazil for not caving to the Elon Musk corporate oligarchs and friends. Like the Viet Nam war, the rich in America always pay the poor to die for them.
In America we’re going to bring back the Corvair, Pinto, Cobalt and Explorer with Firestone tires. No more big gubment telling people what to do. Bring back Value Jet too. It’s fraud, waste and abuse to regulate. These companies were treated horribly. Weaponized justice.
Wow! Somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed. I can’t comment on the other vehicles mentioned, but the Corvair was proven to be a safe vehicle after two sets of tests, but was done in by Ralph Nader, who was not an engineer, had no drivers’ license, and was proven to be only a crackpot writer. RIP, Ralph.
Why does this article bring back memories of the old GM truck side-saddle gas tanks in the 70’s? At that time, all GM’s trucks met and/or exceeded the federal safety mandates. Then in the 80’s or early 90’s, there was this huge investigation into those gas tanks blowing up and catching fire in certain accidents. Not for sure, but I think it was 60 minutes that did an “investigative report” on this issue. It was later determined (and admitted to by 60 minutes) that they rigged the truck used with explosives in order to be sure it blew up.
Maybe those side-saddle tanks weren’t the safest I will admit. But I don’t understand how they can go back many years later (when newer safety regs are in place) and go after companies like GM for that “lack of” safety. If those trucks met and/or exceeded all safety regs of that time, that should be the end of it. So I don’t know much about this Onix thing in Brazil, but if it met all their safety regs at that time, this should be case closed.