GM faces major class actions over faulty transmissions

General Motors has been ordered by a federal appeals court to face a class action alleging it violated the laws of 26 US states by knowingly selling several hundred thousand cars, trucks and SUVs with faulty transmissions .

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a lower court judge has the power to let drivers sue in class for Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles equipped with 8L45 or 8L90 eight-speed automatic transmissions and sold in 2015 through 2019 model years.

Drivers said the vehicles shuddered and shuddered in higher gears and hesitated and lurched in lower gears, even after attempts at repairs. They also accused GM of telling dealers to provide assurances that hard shifts were “normal.”

GM did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. The decision was issued Wednesday by a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

Class actions can result in higher recoveries at lower costs than if plaintiffs were forced to sue individually.

The GM litigation covers about 800,000 vehicles, including 514,000 in certified classes.

Vehicles include the Cadillac CTS, CT6 and Escalade; Chevrolet Camaro, Colorado, Corvette and Silverado; and the GMC Canyon, Sierra and Yukon, among others.

Opposing class certification, GM said most class members have never been in trouble and therefore have no standing to sue.

It also said there were too many differences among class members to warrant class actions.

Circuit Judge Karen Nelson Moore, however, said the overpayment for the allegedly defective vehicles was enough to establish standing.

She also said that “exactly how and to what extent each of the individual plaintiffs experienced a shudder or shift quality problem is irrelevant” to whether GM hid known defects and whether drivers would have found that informative material.

The court also rejected GM’s argument that many potential claims belong in arbitration.

It returned the case to U.S. District Judge David Lawson in Detroit, who certified the classes in March 2023.

“We look forward to holding GM accountable in front of a Michigan jury,” Ted Leopold, a Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll partner representing the drivers, said in a statement.

The case is Speerly et al v. General Motors LLC, US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 23-1940.

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