GM spanked in $102M class action lawsuit – Should RVers go after Elkhart?
October 15, 2022
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A federal jury in California has hit General Motors with a whopping verdict. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California says GM must pay out $102.6 million to folks who owned GM-built rigs with 5.3-liter V8 engines that had excessive oil consumption. The class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of 38,000 owners and lessees. It begs the question raised by so many of our readers who feel shafted by the RV industry: Why not bring class action suits against RV manufacturers?
No recalls issued
The California case, Raul Siqueiros, et al. v. General Motors LLC, was filed in 2016. The suit claimed that GM had hidden an engine defect that caused excessive oil consumption. In addition to the costly and irritating oil-sucking, if owners weren’t paying attention to oil levels, hesitation, stalling, and even engine damage resulted.
The Generation IV Vortec 5300 LC9 engines first went into production in the 2011 model year. It wasn’t long before the complaints came rolling in. Court records indicate the GM initially told mechanics to simply clean the piston rings. That didn’t work, so a ring redesign was next up. That and other “ineffective” remedies finally led the Big Auto Giant to shut down production on the engine after 2014. No recalls were ever issued.
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But where did this leave owners of Chevy Avalanche, Silverado, Suburban, Tahoe, and GMC Sierra, Yukon, and Yukon XL vehicles with the bum engines? Unhappy enough to look for solutions in the courts. In California, the firm DiCello Levitt filed the class action lawsuit that proved to be successful.
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