Nissan PZEVs California Emissions Warranty Coverage Class Action

The California Emissions Warranty requires that transmission repairs and replacements for partial zero emissions vehicles and super ultra-low emissions vehicles (PZEV vehicles) be covered for a period of fifteen years or 150,000 miles. But the complaint for this class action alleges that Nissan North America, Inc. is not properly identifying or covering these repairs.

The class for this action is all persons in California who have been owners or lessees of Class Vehicles and who have paid for repairs and parts pertaining to defective transmissions that should have been covered under the fifteen-year or 150,000-mile California Emissions Warranty. The Class Vehicles are all partial zero emissions vehicles and super ultra-low emissions vehicles distributed by Nissan in California for which Nissan has received a .2 zero emissions credit from CARB.

Nissan must offer this warranty on its PZEV vehicles because it has received a .2 Zero Emissions Credit from the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

Under the law, the complaint alleges, all defects in materials or workmanship that would (a) cause the vehicle’s on-board diagnostic malfunction indicator light to illuminate, (b) increase emissions, or (c) result in the vehicle not being able to pass a California smog check are warranted for 15 years or 150,000 miles.

But Nissan avoids cover such repairs and replacements, the complaint alleges, “by unilaterally defining and wrongfully limiting the parts that should properly be identified as parts covered by” the emissions warranty law.

In February 2020, the plaintiff in this case, Lux Global Auto Sales, Inc., took a 2014 Nissan Sentra with around 82,000 miles on it to a Nissan dealership for repairs. The dealership found that the car was “juddering as well as slipping under load” and recommended replacing the transmission.

The complaint describes transmission slipping as “a delay in acceleration when stepping on the gas, and a condition where your engine has to work harder than normal to achieve a certain speed. This condition increases fuel consumption and increases regulated emissions.”

However, the dealership did not treat the repairs as covered repairs.

The complaint claims this decision involved fault codes and the illumination of the Check Engine MIL. It alleges “on information and belief that Nissan’s [on-board diagnostic] system … does not comply with California law, because the system fails to illuminate a MIL when excessive transmission slipping, outside of normal operating range, has been detected.”

Because of this, the complaint claims, the vehicles in question “will not display a MIL even when a defect is identified which increase[s] regulated emissions.”

The complaint further claims that Nissan has been sued before on similar issues and “has attempted to enter into binding settlement agreements which actually shorten the warranty period for some of the Class Vehicles.” While they violate the law and are therefore not enforceable, the complaint says, they do allow Nissan to mislead customers and escape providing warranty coverage.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Automobile
Tags: Emissions, Failure to Honor Terms of Warranty, Transmission