GM Sued for Not Recalling Nonpolice Chevrolet Impalas to Fix Spindle Rods

[stang65]

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/blogs...b-554cf9add84c


General Motors has been sued by the owner of a Chevrolet Impala who claims the company recalled police versions of the sedan to fix a tire-wear issue but did not recall civilian Impalas for the same problem.

According to the suit, filed in Detroit, GM issued a recall for police Impalas in 2008 for faulty spindle rods, which misaligned the rear wheels and led to premature tire wear. GM told dealers to replace the spindle rods, realign the rear wheels and replace the tires.

The company also told dealers to reimburse police departments that paid for repairs, but it didn't recall more than 400,000 civilian vehicles, the lawsuit claims.

The plaintiff, Donna Trusky, bought an Impala in February 2008 and had to replace her tires after only 6,000 miles, the lawsuit says. The dealership where she bought the vehicle covered the cost and performed a front-end alignment but didn't inform Trusky of the rear-spindle-rod issue. After 18,000 more miles the rear tires needed to be replaced again, according to the suit.

The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, included 16 online complaints from Impala owners who have experienced the same problem.

"We routinely do not comment on matters in litigation," GM spokesman Alan Adler said. "We did issue a technical service bulletin for 2007-08 Impala police cars that contained repair procedures for a rear suspension issue that led to premature rear tire wear."

[SteveJH]

Sounds like a pretty silly law suit to be honest. Unless the person making the suit can prove that the weaker rods caused the problem they arent going to win...

And even then, what can he/she sue for? A replacement of the part in question?

Lets face it, a police car will probably face a harsher life then what a regular car will face on the street, all GM have to do is prove the possibility that the person abused their car don't they?

[Hally]

I suspect that the issue for police cars is the weight they carrying in the boot. I recall reading once that the average US police car carries 200kg in the boot,

[WMD351]

Good luck to the plaintiff, I'd say they'll have to prove it's a safety issue and not simply a performance issue.
GMs probably only done the recall because they don't want to risk their government contract.
Then again it is America, so if you can try and sue someone for something then why not!

[roberts]

hahaha sued for tyre wear, so she got 16000 miles. so would be the cost of new rear tyres minus the wear she got say premature of maybe 4000miles.

The court rules in her favor for maybe $200 to compensate for the miles she didn't get plus $50,000 in court and legal fees only in America.

[janddbone]

Fees are not that much over there...

[outback_ute]

For the back of a FWD car that is pretty poor

[roberts]

Originally Posted by mr_br_johnstone

Fees are not that much over there...

what ever the lawyer charges, maybe they will get her 3mil emotion damages

[prydey]

can't believe all the people having a laugh.

lets put it in our language.

you buy a new falcon and after chewing through 2 sets of tyres in short time, you discover that the police also had this issue but had all their cars fixed up by ford for free.

you also discover that thousands of other owners are having the same issues. i'm pretty sure you'd feel like you deserved to have your car fixed for free. sometimes taking the manufacturer to seems to be the only way to get a response.

you need only to look through these very forums and find issues that people think the manufacturer should be responsible for.

personally, i think if they deemed the police vehicles needed a recall, it should apply to all vehicles of that model.

[stang65]

That was the reason for my post, the little guy gets screwed and the big corps or in this case Goverment get looked after. Why can`t they just own up and do the right thing.

[XR Martin]

Originally Posted by prydey

can't believe all the people having a laugh.

lets put it in our language.

you buy a new falcon and after chewing through 2 sets of tyres in short time, you discover that the police also had this issue but had all their cars fixed up by ford for free.

you also discover that thousands of other owners are having the same issues. i'm pretty sure you'd feel like you deserved to have your car fixed for free. sometimes taking the manufacturer to seems to be the only way to get a response.

you need only to look through these very forums and find issues that people think the manufacturer should be responsible for.

personally, i think if they deemed the police vehicles needed a recall, it should apply to all vehicles of that model.

16 complaints out of how many hundreds of thousands of Impalas?

[SteveJH]

But *are* thousands of other users having that issue?

Its a matter of the conditions that the cars are used under. Taking ford for example, just because the NSW Police get 4 spot brembo's on all their XR6T's, does that mean that all XR6T's should get 4 spot brembo's?

[ebxr8240]

It must be an issue, due to being done on Police vehicles...
Gov owned looking after gov dept !!!!

[SteveJH]

Originally Posted by ebxr8240

It must be an issue, due to being done on Police vehicles...
Gov owned looking after gov dept !!!!

Were GM government owned in 2008?

[ebxr8240]

Originally Posted by SteveJH

Were GM government owned in 2008?

Repaires have been done since then...
Yes I would say it was close ???
Nov 2008 ...

[roberts]

cop cars chew tyres quicker than anything else, this would have compounded the issue, not worth losing a government contact over so you do a quick recall to save face to your best customer. A one off customer that properly drives her car as hard as the cops, not a safety recall.
Drive a Toyota kluger hard and you will put front tyres on it every service.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by roberts

cop cars chew tyres quicker than anything else, this would have compounded the issue, not worth losing a government contact over so you do a quick recall to save face to your best customer. A one off customer that properly drives her car as hard as the cops, not a safety recall.
Drive a Toyota kluger hard and you will put front tyres on it every service.

easy to say when its not happening to you. a faulty part is a faulty part i would've thought.

i'm sure you'd be happy to own a car that has a faulty part that causes premature tyre wear.

[XR_Strider_GuY]

Guys,
I've driven a few of these Impala's. The police versions are generally powered by the 5.3L V8 whilst most of the civilian cars are V6's expect for the SS model.

The police cars have the steel wheels with (what I believe) have relatively narrow tyres. The V8 SS (civilian) versions has the 18 inch wheel package with wider tyres. So I believe to start off, the cars are speced differently between the police models.

[roberts]

Originally Posted by prydey

easy to say when its not happening to you. a faulty part is a faulty part i would've thought.

i'm sure you'd be happy to own a car that has a faulty part that causes premature tyre wear.

doesn't seam to bother commodore drivers