The United States of America is nowadays known for three things – Pranks, Recalls and Suing! Today’s topic is suing and is related to none other than our very own General Motors. A new lawsuit was filed recently in a California federal court which claims that the slew of recalls over the past few months as well as the delayed response to the ignition switch defect have damaged the GM brand and hence has affected the owner’s ability to sell their GM car one day, thereby causing them a loss of something between $500 to $2600 (Rs. 30,000 – 1,56,500/-). The total amount GM might have to pay can amount to $10 billion which is Rs. 60,000 crores, that’s a lot of money.
The lawsuit just does not affect the recalled cars (even though they have recalled up to 20 million cars by now) but all GM cars are affected because it claims the entire brand has overshadowed the safety criteria over and over again. Something which is being called “GM Culture” by critics and law makers. GM in reply responded that the “Culture” comes from the people. Blame the people says GM, not the culture, as this statement is a massive attack on one of the largest brands in the world.
This lawsuit looks for a reply from anyone who bought or leased a GM car between the time frame of 1st July 2009 to April 2014. This was the time when GM emerged back out after a monetary bail from the government from its bankruptcy. All of this was bound to happen as GM was on a recall stint with every car made after the year 2000. Pretty much every car except their sportscars are on recall notice. The brand, the customers and shareholders have all suffered a lot because of absolute negligence towards safety and quality, something which Americans heavily demand when they buy anything. Right from a bottle of high quality peanut butter to a five meter sedan. If GM could not prove their facts in the courtroom, this could be the largest amount of money which will given out to affected people in the automotive scenario.
