The General has settled a class-action lawsuit claiming damages from its "Dexcool" coolant, agreeing to pay up to $800 each to customers who can prove damages. Plaintiff attorneys estimate that the final number of claims could top $20 million, a bill which would cost GM of hundreds of millions of dollars. "It could be multiple nine figures; it depends on how many people make the claim," co-counsel for the plaintiffs, Jack Brady tells the International Herald Tribune . "I think it could be a huge settlement." Of course, while the people who had to replace manifold gaskets and heater cores get between $50 and $800 for repairs, Mr Brady and his co-counsels will pocket up to $23 million in fees and $2.8 million for expenses. Still, if you own a GM vehicle with the 3.1-liter or 3.4-liter V6 engines for model years 1995 to 2003; the 3.8-liter V6 engines for model years 1995 to 2004; or the 4.3-liter V6 engines for model years 1995 through 2000 and have had to pay for coolant-related damages, you should check dexcoolsettlement.com to file a claim.
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Classic case of had they made the recall and fixed their customer’s cars in the first place the suit would not have happened and people would not have lost trust.
They never learn.
So does that include the 3.8 Supercharged?
Keep that great GM feeling with Genuine GM Parts!
Geez, no wonder they can’t sell cars.
This settlement for GM vehicles still does not settle the Class Action in Canada, but I have heard they are close to getting it done here too! Also would like to know if it includes the 3.8 Supercharged too??
It doesn’t matter if it includes the Supercharged 3800, as it will probably catch on fire first.
Even if it costs GM millions, they still won’t learn a lesson from it. They seem to be like a runaway train, they will not stop before they hit something and end up as a train wreck. It’s a good thing that the thing is settled now because when GM is in CH11 nobody will get a cent.
Curious… is GM, or the lawfirm, required to pro actively notify owners of eligable vehicles about this? Can they extract a mailing lists from each state’s DMV of matching cars?
Or is GM hoping that no one will notice?
I’d think that the DMVs might have to produce a list for them. Or in the interest of privacy, be paid to send a notice to owners on GM’s behalf.
Back in 1994 I bought a brand-new Probe GT. at 30K miles I changed my coolant, and “thinking” that Dexcool, brand-new back then, was the “best” my money could buy, I used it for the refill. 10K later, my heater core blew.
Was it the Dexcool? Well, it was a Probe after all.
Probably the Dexcool. The four-cylinder Probes are built like a brick shithouse while the 6-cylinders are also a sound design.
Hmmm… maybe now Ford (a.k.a. Volvo’s unfortunate association) will have the courage to refund all those misinformed customers who were told that their Volvo transmission fluid would last a lifetime. In the meantime, Toyota uses a very similar transmission and fluid from the same company and wisely stated that the fluid should be changed every 60k.
Guess why the auctions are inundated with Volvo’s ad nauseum? Now you know…
Steven,
Your used car market insight is a great read.
How about a few more “market insight” articles with stuff like you posted above.
Classic case of had they made the recall and fixed their customer’s cars in the first place the suit would not have happened and people would not have lost trust.
They never learn.
Amen! My wife owned a POS Buick with this problem and we got no support from GM.
We own Hyundais now.
John
How about the loss of resale value all of us suckers who had one of those vehicles got zapped by.
After getting killed on resale value for an Oldsmobile I learned my lesson and bought an Acura replacement. Yes, my Olds was one of zillions which needed a just-out-of-warranty intake manifold gasket replacement.
Having owned a 98 Malibu and replacing the lower intake gaskets twice, I will definitely be hitting this up. If only there were more class actions to recoup costs for all the other common problems. While I thought the car was pretty decent otherwise, my next car will be a Honda because of stuff like this.
We used to own a 2000 Malibu with the 3.1 V6 engine, purchased used @ 38,000 miles (just after the warranty ran out). At 54,000 miles the transmission failed ($2750). Less than 6 months later (spring 2004) it began to suffer cooling system problems. After unsuccessfully attempting to diagnose and fix the problems myself I finally went to the local Chevy dealer. The mechanic diagnosed the problem as a leaking intake manifold gasket and estimated $800 for repairs. By this time we had lost confidence in the vehicle and took it across the street to a Hyundai dealership. While we were test-driving various models, the Hyundai reps checked out our car for trade-in value. Although I had not mentioned the cooling system problems, they found the problem. The sales rep told us they had run into this problem so often that they now looked for it every time someone wanted to trade in a GM vehicle with the 3.1 or 3.4 V6. Only the 2004 Accent fit into our limited budget. They offered us a decent trade-in value anyway and we bought the Accent. Biggest reason was the 10 year/100K drivetrain warranty.
My brother-in-law ran into the same leaking intake manifold gasket on his Venture minivan with 3.4 v6.
Previously we had owned other Chevys and were satisfied with their reliability (79 Malibu v6 – 113K, 85 Celebrity w/2.8 v6 – 154K, 90 Lumina minivan with 3.1 v6 – 179K). We sold these cars because they no longer suited our needs or had gotten rusty and ratty looking after many Wisconsin winters. The engines and trannys were still going strong in all of them.
That 2000 Malibu is the main reason there is a Hyundai and a Toyota in our driveway today. Both have been dependable vehicles. I’d buy either brand again.
GM’s biggest cost with this settlement is not the $800 or so reimbursement for repairs, but the customers they lost, perhaps forever.
The new Chevy Malibu has received positive reviews. I hope the “built to last” phrase from the Malibu commercials is more than just a marketing tagline.
This has happened to my co-worker’s 2000 Impala, my mother-in-law’s 1999 Malibu and my parent’s 1999 Buick Park Avenue. It’s things like this that lead me to believe that the erosion of GM’s market share isn’t quite finished…
The 1997 Camaro that I just traded for an Elantra never suffered from DexCool problems, even after 10 years/58k. I was pretty lucky by the looks of it…
I performed a partial flush/fill a year ago, and got quite a bit of gunk out of it.
The fact that the Saturn Astra uses the stuff was one strike against it for me.
I wonder if GM is going to go after Texaco on this one, as I believe they developed the stuff and sold GM on it…
Or is GM hoping that no one will notice?
That’s a bit like asking a man watching ‘Dancing With The Stars’ if he’d like a wife with a firmer behind.
I replaced the intake gaskets on a 1999 454 Suburban. The mechanic told me it’s a 100% failure rate. Until this I had never heard of intake gaskets failing, odd since I’ve owned a whole litany of junk dated back to early 50’s iron.
Since this episode I’ve found out it’s affected many more engines than the ones involved in the lawsuit.
My question is, how did GM weasel their way out of fixing all of them? Were the attorneys worried GM would have immediately folded and they would have received nothing from the bankruptcy court?
Heck, I remember reading the GM literature about this so called “long life coolant” and how you should make sure to “use only this special coolant” when having the car serviced. It was bragged up about being super long lived. And now this! How in the world can this be good for customer loyalty of any kind? Just horrible. Abysmal. Dark. What else can go wrong?
Hey! I’m part of this special club! My ’95 Grand Prix up and ‘sploded on me one fine day on my way to work.
I fixed it, then took a bath on the resale when I traded it in on a Honda Civic Si… Needless to say, I saved money on maintenance in the long run.
Narrator: A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one.
Business woman on plane: Are there a lot of these kinds of accidents?
Narrator: You wouldn’t believe.
Business woman on plane: Which car company do you work for?
Narrator: A major one.
While this issue doesn’t create accidents, it’s the same idea.
Tecant nailed it.
“…not the $800 or so reimbursement for repairs, but the customers they lost, perhaps forever…”
I would be one of them. GONE!
Copies of the repair orders are posted at the office for all the ridiculous work my GMs have required, IN PARTICULAR with regard to intake manifold gaskets. So not only have they lost a customer, I am spreading the word, buyer beware, for new or used. You end up with a used one without a warranty, you are footing the bill. Folks don’t seem to be receptive to that one.
Hopefully the Canadian c/a also gets the same result.
Anybody know if this settlement applies to Canadian customers?
Some one asked if this covered Canadian Cars, It does not, there is a separate Class action against GM Canada and GM Corporation, I do hear that there is a settlement pending here in Canada as well, for further info on this check out the APA http://www.apa.ca as they have information on this
Does anybody in the GM heavens read these blogs?? this is such a small percentage of readers and bloggers here..but with a big voice…If I were a manager at 1 of the 2.8, I’d listen up fast..because nobody is going to want to buy a USELESS AUTO MANUFACTURE CO.. that has a LOUSEY REPUTATION FOR BUILDING CRAPPY BADGED CARS…
My Achieva’s 3.1L 6cyl blew its gasket. Nice engine, when it ran. Very economical. Shoulda been a lot more durable.
Hmmmm, I bet when these cars from the 1998 to 2000 model year were brand new if the Detroit fan club were screaming then that the Detroit 3 cars were every bit as reliable as Toyota and Honda. GM and Ford will only stop their market share loss when the last prior generation models prove to be as reliable as their Japanese competition. It doesn’t matter what their latest and greatest current models do.
Astronomical cost estimates are commonly reported for recalls, settlements and adverse judgments. I cannot recall seeing a figure for the actual cost on program completion.
In all likelihood the settlement will cost GM a fraction of the estimated hundreds of millions of dollars. Many owners have disposed of the vehicle, misplaced the paperwork or will not act upon it. Stonewalling, procrastination and legal footwork yield substantially reduced dollar costs else corporations would not engage in them.
It is a Pyrrhic victory. The lasting damage to GM’s reputation for quality and integrity confirmed by plummeting market share and profitability is incalculable.
The real question: how did this disaster happen? How could Texaco AND GM fail to realize there would be ruinous consequences from the sludge generated by this coolant? It also appears nylon/silicone manifold gaskets are vulnerable to Dexcool; are they especially failure-prone or just when exposed to Dexcool?
In 1962 the Chevy II with its single-leaf rear springs was introduced. Ads claimed “Extensive Chevrolet testing proved their exceptional durability after tests equivalent to more than 2 million miles.”
Did GM and/or Texaco not conduct long-term testing of Dexcool? Or were the results ignored?
Huh…this leaves me with a few questions:
1) if GM still uses Dexcool (i.e. new Astra), has it been reformulated to not have the undesired side affects?
2) if one owns a GM vehicle fitting this description (my 98 Blazer w/135k), should I flush and replace the coolant with normal “green” antifreeze, or do I have to replace it with more Dexcool?
I would appreciate some info…some people here seem quite knowledgeable on the subject.
if one owns a GM vehicle fitting this description (my 98 Blazer w/135k), should I flush and replace the coolant with normal “green” antifreeze, or do I have to replace it with more Dexcool?
If you believe this TSB from Delco, it should be OK to use regular non-Dexcool antifreeze if you change coolant every two years or 30,000 miles, whichever comes first.
http://acdelcotechconnect.com/pdf/tsb/tsb_04D-J-054.pdf
One of the alleged benefits of Dexcool is that it is supposed to last longer. Given the types of problems that have been reported, I am going to guess that if you keep to a shorter interval (in other words, assume a 2-year/30,000 mile change interval, rather than the 5-year interval recommended by GM) and keep the system full that you may not have problems. Check for corrosion and sludge regularly, and flush the system if you see early indications of problems.
So how many people would keep a car with head gasket issues after getting raped for an out of warranty repair? Classic. Just like transmission issues, they decide to take care of it after going to court and waiting it out, hoping the cars end up in the junkyard first.
Where is the local Toyota dealer?
Here’s the difference between GM and someone else. In 1989, my 1986 Mazda 323 siezed it’s motor at about 55,000 miles – because of oiling problems. It cost about $2400 for a new short block. I was pissed. But what are you gonna do? Back then, warranties were 12 months/12,000 miles.
6 months later, Mazda sent a letter – they were aware of a lubrication issue that can cause premature wear/failure. They extended the engine warranty to some ridiculous number, and if you had already made such a repair, submit the receipt for full reimbursement.
No class action lawsuit needed. And I bought two more Mazdas.