DETROIT -- American Honda Motor Co. has agreed to settle a
class-action lawsuit over claims that it manufactured 1,593,755
defective vehicles that excessively burn oil and require frequent spark
plug replacements.
The settlement concerns all U.S. purchasers and
lessees of 2008-12 Accord, 2008-13 Odyssey, 2009-13 Pilot, 2010-11
Accord Crosstour and 2012 Crosstour vehicles equipped with six-cylinder
engines that have variable cylinder management. Accord vehicles with
four-cylinder engines are excluded from the settlement.
The
original suit -- filed in March 2012 by plaintiffs Alex Soto and Vince
Eagen -- claimed the vehicles contained a "systematic design defect that
enables oil to enter into the engine's combustion chamber." The alleged
defect led to "premature spark plug degradation and engine
malfunction," court documents said.
The plaintiffs claimed Honda
hid the problem from consumers. Honda denied the allegation, despite
receiving hundreds of online complaints on the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration Web site, and about 130 on carcomplaints.com
concerning the 2008 Accord alone.
Honda later issued a technical
service bulletin notifying its technicians to check for the defect. The
automaker did not issue a recall because a safety issue was not
discovered.
The majority of complaints allege that Honda said it
was normal for a powertrain to burn a quart of oil every 1,000 miles.
The suit claimed Honda refused to cover warranties for the vehicles and,
instead, instructed customers to check their oil every time they get
gas.
Eagan claims that he had to add a quart of oil to his vehicle
each month and had to replace his "prematurely fouled" spark plugs
twice within 55,000 miles as a result of oil burning in the cylinders.
Soto
said in court documents that he routinely noticed carbon buildup on his
exhaust pipe -- a sign that oil, and not just gasoline, is burning in
the powertrain.
Honda assured Soto that this, too, was normal, court documents show.
Dave
Sullivan, an analyst at research firm AutoPacific, said that today's
emission requirements do not permit engines to burn oil.
"It's too
dirty," Sullivan said. "We're seeing cars go 10,000 miles now between
oil changes. If there was a quart for every thousand miles you would
need 10 quarts, and most cars don't have that many quarts in them."
Sullivan
said when he changed the oil in his Mazda6 that he may have lost "a cup
or two of oil between changes, but that was over 7,500 miles. I think
that's a negligible amount. That being said, there's no excuse for a
quart every thousand miles."
Sullivan said the last major episode
that involved people complaining about oil burn was with the Mazda RX-8.
"Instead of waiting for people to complain, [Mazda] was more proactive
and … said 'even if you don't have a problem, you're going to have one
so let's just fix it now.'"
Honda declined to comment until after the case is granted final approval.
The
settlement was reached after U.S. District Judge Susan Illston declined
the defendant's motion to force arbitration on the case in Oct. 2012.
The judge found that Honda was a third-party non-signatory to a contract
and therefore may not compel arbitration under the terms of the
contract.
The preliminary settlement approval was given Oct. 9 by
Illston in San Francisco. The final fairness hearing, which is the last
step in a class action settlement, is set for March 21.
Under the
conditions of the settlement, Honda agreed to extend the powertrain
limited warranty for up to eight years after the original sale or lease
of the vehicle. Honda also agreed not to oppose the counsel attorney
fees as long as they do not exceed more than $800,000. Eagen is also
asking the court to approve an incentive award of no more than $1,000 to
compensate him for his time and effort on behalf of the settlement
class, according to a copy of the class notice.
Details on the
settlement notice, which is due to be sent out by the court Wednesday,
can be found in the .pdf file attached to this story (below).
Source;
http://www.autonews.com/article/20131022/OEM11/131029975/american-honda-settles-class-action-suit-over-oil-burning-defect#axzz2iYGR3fXW
No comments:
Post a Comment