GM Failed to Deliver on Warranty, Says Suit

Bloomfield Hills, MI General Motors is under fire in a national class-action suit for allegedly failing to honor its so-called bumper-to-bumper warranty and replace defective spindle rods. A class-action suit filed against GM says defective spindle rods caused customers to replace the tires on the vehicles, and rendered potentially hundreds of thousands of 2007 and 2008 Chevy Impalas unsafe to drive.

The class-action suit was filed by David Fink from Fink & Associates on behalf of Donna M. Trusky, but there are plenty of other people who have been battling with GM over the same problem and had the same results. It is estimated that there may be close to half a million owners of 2007 and 2008 Chevy Impalas in the US, all of whom would be eligible to join the class.

In February 2008, Trusky bought a new Chevy Impala. Within a year, and with only 6,000 miles on the car, the tires were so worn out that they had to be replaced. Two years and another 18,000 miles later, the tires were again so worn out that the car would not pass inspection.

Even though GM issued a recall in July of 2007, identifying the spindle rods as a problem, the documents say that GM refused to fix the problem when car owners went to the dealerships to ask to have it repaired. Not only did GM dealerships not honor the warranty, many continued to sell the Impalas and even denied there were problems with the cars.

And Trusky is not the only one with early tire wear or having trouble getting GM to deal with the problem, according to information contained in the complaint gathered from a number of Internet posts.

"Purchased new Impala in 2008 and had to replace tires at 35,000 miles," writes another GM customer. "Always rotated, balanced and proper tire pressure," and then adds, "what's up?"

The GM "Bumper to Bumper" Warranty provides a 3-year or 36,000-mile warranty, but the suit alleges the company knew and failed to warn customers about the defective spindle rods, and that it failed to honor its warranty.

The suit asks for damages, injunctive and declaratory relief for all purchases of 2007 and 2008 Impalas.


David Fink is the managing partner of Fink & Associates Law with more than 30 years of litigation experience in courts throughout the state of Michigan. He focuses his practice on complex commercial and class-action litigation in the areas of business disputes, antitrust, consumer fraud, environmental law, intergovernmental disputes, securities fraud, shareholder derivative litigation and construction contract matters.