The “Dieselgate” Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal, which started in 2015, didn’t just cause problems for Volkswagen. It had a ripple effect impacting most major automakers that marketed cars with diesel engines around the same timeframe as the VW models that got caught cheating in emissions testing. One of those automakers was GM, the car in question being the 2014-2015 Chevy Cruze powered by the turbodiesel 2.0L I4 LUZ.
Drivers who owned non-Volkswagen diesel cars around the time of Dieselgate tried to cash in on the scandal by accusing their cars’ manufacturers of cheating on emissions testing like Volkswagen. A class action lawsuit that was first filed against GM in 2016 regarding the diesel Cruze appeared to be dead, but it’s been brought back to life by an appeals court, according to CarComplaints. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has sent Counts, et al., v. General Motors LLC back to the U.S. District Court Eastern District Of Michigan “for the limited purpose of determining whether the plaintiffs’ remaining claims” are preempted.
The plaintiffs accuse General Motors of using defeat devices in their emissions systems that cause illegal levels of nitrogen oxide output when not in a testing environment. They claim the cars should’ve been recalled and that they’d lose money for “future attempted repairs.” However, those repairs never came to light, and years of discovery haven’t revealed any evidence of deceptive engineering by GM or by Bosch, which developed the injection system.
We reported last year that this lawsuit appeared to finally be dead. It was dismissed in July of 2023, and a federal judge refused to reconsider the case in February of 2024. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals has the power to breathe new life into seemingly dead cases.
The 2014 Chevy Cruze was the first GM passenger car offered with a diesel engine in the U.S. since the 1986 Chevy Chevette, which had an available Isuzu-sourced diesel 4-cylinder making 52 horsepower. The diesel option in the Cruze was developed by Fiat and produced 148 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque while returning 44 highway mpg.
Comments
sedans like those are so rare now in this page,,, seems a martian odd project.. if it would be a sumatra green with two tones and some chromes would be really a fascination to see a from mars project industry is not able to do anymore since 20 years
I had one of these cars back in the day, loved it. Sounded like a little tractor and got near 50mpg. The EPA was retesting all diesels with an updated test to catch cheaters after the scandal, I emailed them and they verified the car was retested by the Canadian equivalent of the EPA (Who was assisting them with the retesting as there were so many cars to retest) and it passed. I cannot believe this frivolous suit is still kicking around.
My VW diesel Golf has a DEF tank. I was sold one one non-cheaters. DEF is cheap and simple to add when the light goes on. I have never had to add it. It gets added at oil changes anyway. The only thing that’s different than a gas car is that the fuel filter needs to be changed every 20k miles. I get a consistent 50 MPG and now diesel is a dime cheaper than Unleaded.
Diesel is “greener” by my opinion than gas or electric. And cheating on emissions would be a plus in my preferences over not cheating. It’s all meant to be deleted anyway so what’s the fuss? Delete’s improve fuel economy and reduce carbon dioxide.
I thought that the GM diesel in these cars was developed by Isuzu?
The LUZ was an Fiat / GM joint venture, Fiat-GM Powertrain. It was developed by GM Powertrain Torino in Italy and produced by Opel in Germany.