The GM Instrument Cluster Settlement was a 2008 class action settlement awarded to owners of certain General Motors vehicles with allegedly defective speedometers. The settlement allows the owner or lessee to get their instrument cluster replaced under the terms of a special coverage adjustment to their factory standard warranty.
A class action, also known as a class action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member of that group. The class action originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, but Canada, as well as several European countries with civil law have made changes in recent years to allow consumer organizations to bring claims on behalf of consumers.
A speedometer or a speed meter is a gauge that measures and displays the instantaneous speed of a vehicle. Now universally fitted to motor vehicles, they started to be available as options in the 1900s, and as standard equipment from about 1910 onwards. Speedometers for other vehicles have specific names and use other means of sensing speed. For a boat, this is a pit log. For an aircraft, this is an airspeed indicator.
In contract law, a warranty is a promise which is not a condition of the contract or an innominate term: (1) it is a term "not going to the root of the contract", and (2) which only entitles the innocent party to damages if it is breached: i.e. the warranty is not true or the defaulting party does not perform the contract in accordance with the terms of the warranty. A warranty is not guarantee. It is a mere promise. It may be enforced if it is breached by an award for the legal remedy of damages.
As early as 2005, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had received complaints concerning erratic speedometer and gauge readings from numerous makes and models of GM vehicles. [1] No deaths or injuries were ever attributed to the erratic gauges, but owners of the vehicles felt the problem was a safety concern.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is an agency of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government, part of the Department of Transportation. It describes its mission as "Save lives, prevent injuries, reduce vehicle-related crashes."
In 2007, Kevin Zwicker filed suit against General Motors in U.S. District Court in Seattle seeking three types of compensation: [2]
John Hall filed a nearly identical suit in U.S. District Court in Oregon after paying the out of warranty repair cost to replace the instrument cluster in his 2003 GMC Envoy LE. Both Zwicker and Hall were represented by Beth Terrell, an attorney with the Seattle law firm of Tousley Brain Stephens. [2]
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, who decided to certify the lawsuit as a class-action.
John C. Coughenour is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. Before being appointed as a judge, Coughenour was a leading litigator with Bogle and Gates and has taught trial and appellate practice at the University of Washington School of Law.
Owners who paid for repairs to the speedometer before the class action settlement are eligible for reimbursement under the following terms:
When a person makes a claim for personal injury damages that have resulted from the presence of a defective automobile or component of an automobile, that person asserts a product liability claim. That claim may be against the automobile's manufacturer, the manufacturer of a component part or system, or both, as well as potentially being raised against companies that distributed, sold or installed the part or system that is alleged to be defective.
The Saturn Corporation, also known as Saturn LLC, was an American automobile manufacturer, a registered trademark established on January 7, 1985, as a subsidiary of General Motors. The company marketed itself as a "different kind of car company" and operated somewhat independently from its parent company for a time with its own assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, unique models, and a separate retailer network, and was GM's attempt to compete with Japanese imports and transplants in the US compact car market.
The Chevrolet Avalanche is a four-door, five or six passenger pickup truck sharing GM's long-wheelbase chassis used on the Chevrolet Suburban and Cadillac Escalade EXT. Breaking with a long-standing tradition, the Avalanche was not available as a GMC, but only as a Chevrolet. Production of the Avalanche started in September 2001 and ended April 2013; producing two generations in its lifespan.
General Motors Company (GMC), formally the GMC Division of General Motors LLC, is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that primarily focuses on trucks and utility vehicles. GMC sells pickup and commercial trucks, buses, vans, military vehicles, and sport utility vehicles marketed worldwide by General Motors. In North America, GMC dealerships are almost always also Buick dealerships, allowing the same dealer to market both upmarket cars and upmarket trucks.
GM Korea Company is South Korea's third largest automobile manufacturer and a subsidiary of General Motors. GM Korea's roots go back to the former Daewoo which was split from its parent company, Daewoo Group, in 2001. It has 3 manufacturing facilities in South Korea as well as a vehicle assembly facility in Vietnam. In addition, GM Korea provides region and brand-specific vehicle assembly kits for assembly by GM affiliates in the United States, Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, India, and Mexico. In 2008, GM Korea built more than 1.9 million vehicles, including CKD products. It now produces vehicles and kits for Chevrolet, Holden and Buick that are offered in more than 150 markets on six continents. GM Korea also has design, engineering, research & development facilities that are involved in development for various GM products, above all small-size cars.
The Cadillac Escalade is a full-size luxury SUV engineered and manufactured by Cadillac. It was Cadillac's first major entry into the SUV market. The Escalade was introduced for the 1999 model year in response to competition from the Mercedes-Benz ML-Class and Lexus LX and to Ford's 1998 release of the Lincoln Navigator. The Escalade project went into production only ten months after it was approved. The Escalade is built in Arlington, Texas. The word "escalade" refers to a siege warfare tactic of scaling defensive walls or ramparts with the aid of ladders or siege towers.
Chevrolet El Camino is a coupé utility vehicle that was produced by Chevrolet between 1959–60 and 1964–1987. Unlike a pickup truck, the El Camino was adapted from a two-door station wagon platform that integrated the cab and cargo bed into the body.
The LS based small-block engine is the primary V-8 used in General Motors' line of rear-wheel-drive cars and trucks. Introduced in January 1995, it is a "clean sheet" design with only rod bearings, lifters, and bore spacing in common with the longstanding Chevrolet small block V8 that preceded it as the basis for GM small-block V8s. The basic LS variations use cast iron blocks, while performance editions are all aluminium with cast iron cylinder liners.
The Hummer H2 is a large SUV that was marketed by Hummer and built by AM General from 2002 to 2009 based on a modified GMT820 Chevrolet 2500 HD in front and 1500 frame in back. A common misconception was that it was based on a Tahoe frame. A four-door pickup truck version with a midgate that opens the vehicle's interior to the external cargo bed was introduced for 2005 as the H2 SUT.
The Chevrolet Suburban is a full-size SUV from Chevrolet. It is the longest continuous use automobile nameplate in production, starting in 1935 for the 1935 U.S. model year, and has traditionally been one of General Motors' most profitable vehicles. The 1935 first generation Carryall Suburban was one of the first production all-metal bodied station wagons.
The Chevrolet Tahoe is a full-size SUV from General Motors. Chevrolet and GMC sold two different-sized SUVs under their Blazer/Jimmy model names through the early 1990s. This situation changed when GMC rebadged the full-size Jimmy as the Yukon in 1991. Chevrolet waited until 1994 to rebadge the redesigned mid-size S-10 Blazer as the Blazer, renaming the full-size Blazer as the Tahoe. The name Tahoe refers to the rugged and scenic area surrounding Lake Tahoe in the western United States. The name Yukon refers to the Yukon territory of northern Canada. For the 1995 model year, the Tahoe and Yukon gained a new 4-door model slotting in size between the 2-door models and the longer wheelbase and higher passenger capacity to up to nine passengers like the Chevrolet Suburban and newly named Yukon XL.
The Isuzu Ascender is a midsize SUV built by General Motors for Isuzu. The 7-passenger Ascender was introduced for the 2003 model year as a replacement for the Isuzu Trooper. The 5-passenger Ascender was introduced for the 2004 model year as a replacement for the Isuzu Rodeo and the Isuzu Axiom.
GMT is the designation prefix used for all General Motors truck, sport utility vehicle, and crossover SUV automobile platform applications. This includes both traditional body-on-frame trucks and newer unibody models.
Arlington Assembly is a General Motors automobile factory in Arlington, Texas. The plant has operated for more than 60 years and today manufactures large SUVs from GM's Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac divisions.
Linden Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Linden, New Jersey. The plant operated from 1937 to 2005 and made cars, trucks and SUVs for various GM automotive divisions.
The GMC Denali nameplate is used by GMC on its top-of-the-line trucks and SUVs in the line-up. Vehicles with the Denali trim option carry list prices up to 47% higher than those of the regular models. Prices range from $40,240 for GMC Terrain to $81,270 for a top-of-the-line Yukon XL Denali. The Denali nameplate is often used as an insignia or status symbol, and in particular is popular as a less costly alternative to the Cadillac Escalade. The Yukon Denali line typically represents 40% of Yukon sales in both units and dollars. In 2013 it sold more than 75,558 units of the Denali brand, which accounted for 20% of GMC's sales, making it one of GM's most successful sub-brands, all done without any advertising or promotion whatsoever.
The Chevrolet Kodiak and GMC TopKick are a range of medium duty trucks that were produced by the Chevrolet and GMC divisions of General Motors from 1980 to 2009. Introduced as a variant of the medium-duty C/K truck line, three generations were produced. Slotted between the C/K trucks and the GMC Brigadier Class 8 conventional, the Kodiak/TopKick were developed as a basis for vocationally-oriented trucks, including cargo haulers, dump trucks, and similar vehicles; on later generations, both cutaway and cowled-chassis variants were produced for bus use.
GM Certified Service is an auto repair service for General Motors. In 2011, GM replaced the Goodwrench brand in the US with Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, and GMC Certified Service brands.
The Chevrolet Series 490 is an early American automobile, made from 1915 to 1922 by Chevrolet. Introduced in June 1915, the 490 sold for $490. Chevrolet 490 was an immediate success and established the brand as a big player. The name would not denote the price for long, but it would stay low enough to take a chunk out of the Model T market. The Model T started at $495 at the time. Chevrolet was soon so profitable that Billy Durant began buying shares of GM stock with his Chevrolet stock. Electric horns were standard. And by 1921, standard equipment included a speedometer, and ammeter, dome lights, and headlight dimmers.
GMT K2XX is an assembly code for a vehicle platform architecture developed by General Motors for its line of full-size trucks and large SUVs that started production with the 2014 model year. The "XX" is a place holder for the last two digits of the specific assembly code for each model. The platform, which replaced the GMT900 series that had been in production from 2007 to 2013, was introduced in April 2013 for the 2014 Model Year on the trucks, followed by the December 2013 production on the 2015 large SUVs that debuted in February 2014. The GMT K2XX products are being produced at four GM assembly plants: Arlington, Flint, and Fort Wayne in the United States, along with Silao Assembly in Mexico for the crew cab light duty pickups.
This transmission is part of a joint-venture between Ford Motor Company and General Motors to design and engineer two transmissions, a longitudinal 10-speed transmission and a transverse 9-speed trans-axle. Each company will manufacture its own unique version of the transmissions in their own factories. The 10-speed transmission was designed by Ford, while GM designed the 9-speed transmission which is used in transverse applications.