Personal Injury Law

GM agrees to pay Saturn owners for transmission defects

By Sam G. Nicholson and Harry D. Revell

General Motors Corp. has agreed to pay an estimated $90 million or more to "tens of thousands" of motorists in all 50 states for expenses they incurred as a result of defective transmissions in more than 90,000 Saturn economy cars.

The agreement by the manufacturing giant, if ultimately approved by a Sacramento federal judge, would resolve a class-action lawsuit targeting certain models of four-cylinder Saturn Vues and Ions.

They are equipped with "Vti" transmissions. Unlike a conventional automatic transmission, which uses traditional gears to shift at a few fixed points, it is a "continuously variable" transmission that has a belt and pulley system to shift between gears.

Full post as published by Nicholson Revell on September 16, 2008 (boomark / email).