Chevrolets “Shift to Park” Error Message Class Action

Certain General Motors Chevrolet vehicles have an odd defect, claims the complaint for this class action: They don’t know when they’re in Park. According to the complaint, they fail to recognize that the gear shift is in Park and will not shut down. Instead, they display a “Shift to Park” error message, meaning that the drivers “are forced to resort to try to trick their vehicles to detect that the shift level is in fact in ‘Park.’” The complaint calls this the Shifter Defect.

The Nationwide Class for this action is all persons or entitites in the US who bought or leased the following vehicles:

• 2016-2019 Chevrolet Malibus
• 2016-2019 Chevrolet Volts
• 2018-2019 Chevrolet Traverses
• 2019 Chevrolet Blazers

Maryland, Minnesota, and Wisconsin Subclasses have also been defined for persons or entities in those states.

The complaint describes it this way: “The Class Vehicles contain a defect in which the vehicles fail to detect that the driver has placed the car in ‘Park’ and thus prevents the vehicle driver from shutting off and locking the vehicle.”

The complaint claims this is due to “a defect with [the] transmission shifter.” It reproduces a number of online postings that describe the problem:

• “The car will not turn off. I cannot leave the car. I am stuck rolling the car forward and back multiple times until it finally registers it’s in park and turns off. … I have missed meetings because I have been unable to leave my car.”
• “The engine turns off but all other system[s] [are] still on. My radio and lights will not turn off. It[’]s a pain [be]cause you have to keep messing with it until it accepts that the car is in park.”
• “Dealership states this is a known issue across multiple GM models but GM refuses to accept responsibility. Repair will cost $750.00 [] and is not covered under an extended powertrain warranty. … How can the gear shifter not be considered as part of the powertrain[,] electronically controlled or not?”

The complaint alleges that GM has known about the problem, issuing its first service bulletin on it in January 2017. But the company does not acknowledge the defect to customers, the complaint claims; instead, it forces customers to pay to have it fixed at their own expense.

The complaint claims, “Automakers have a legal obligation to identify and report emerging safety-related defects to [the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)] under the Early Warning Report requirements.” It claims that GM should have known about the problem.

When owners or lessees are willing to pay for the repair themselves, the complaint says, “GM replaces the faulty drive unit (transmission) and/or the park switch in the transmission control assembly with another faulty drive unit (transmission) and/or park switch.” This means that the problem is likely to recur.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Automobile
Tags: Defective Automobile, Defective Gear Shifter