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March 7, 2025 — A GM 8L90 transmission lawsuit will continue in court after General Motors failed in its bid to get the entire class action dismissed.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs purchased vehicles equipped with automatic 8L90 and 8L45 transmissions that frequently “slip, buck, kick, jerk and harshly engage.”
The saga of the “bucking transmissions” will continue for General Motors after a senior U.S. district judge recently failed to dismiss a lawsuit.
Judge David M. Lawson made the ruling in the Cole Ulrich, et al. v. General Motors LLC suit a companion lawsuit to Speerly v. General Motors, a class action suit that includes only certain states and is currently in an appeals court.
Both suits concern certain 2015-19 GM vehicles, including some C7 Corvettes, with Hydra-Matic 8L90 and 8L45 transmissions.
The plaintiffs allege that the transmissions have two defects automatic transmission fluid that lacks “robustness to moisture” that leads to “shudder” problems and “an insufficient valve body architecture” that can purge trapped air, leading to “harsh shifts.”
The original lawsuit claims that GM’s own documents prove it considered retrofit packages to fix the transmission issue, but rejected them because of the cost $1,550 for valve body replacement and $4,450 for a new transmission in each vehicle.
While no injuries or deaths have been connected to the problem that causes the transmissions to “slip, buck, kick, jerk, and harshly engage,” the lawsuit does include reports of “numerous dangerous incidents where drivers lost control of class vehicles and struck or nearly collided with other cars, objects, or pedestrians, or had harrowing near-miss incidents with oncoming or overtaking traffic due to abrupt, unpredictable, and uncontrollable acceleration or deceleration caused by the transmissions’ failure to engage or maintain appropriate drive gear settings.”
Judge Lawson ruled there are adequate facts to suggest the vehicles were “not fit for the ordinary purpose of providing reasonably safe transportation” because of the specific transmissions and turned down the dismissal of the Ulrich lawsuit.
The lawsuit includes these General Motors vehicles equipped with Hydra-Matic 8L90 and 8L45 transmissions.
“[N]umerous dangerous incidents where drivers lost control of class vehicles and struck or nearly collided with other cars, objects, or pedestrians, or had harrowing near-miss incidents with oncoming or overtaking traffic due to abrupt, unpredictable, and uncontrollable acceleration or deceleration caused by the transmissions’ failure to engage or maintain appropriate drive gear settings.”
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs purchased vehicles equipped with automatic 8L90 and 8L45 transmissions that frequently “slip, buck, kick, jerk and harshly engage.”
The saga of the “bucking transmissions” will continue for General Motors after a senior U.S. district judge recently failed to dismiss a lawsuit.
Judge David M. Lawson made the ruling in the Cole Ulrich, et al. v. General Motors LLC suit a companion lawsuit to Speerly v. General Motors, a class action suit that includes only certain states and is currently in an appeals court.
Both suits concern certain 2015-19 GM vehicles, including some C7 Corvettes, with Hydra-Matic 8L90 and 8L45 transmissions.
The plaintiffs allege that the transmissions have two defects automatic transmission fluid that lacks “robustness to moisture” that leads to “shudder” problems and “an insufficient valve body architecture” that can purge trapped air, leading to “harsh shifts.”
The original lawsuit claims that GM’s own documents prove it considered retrofit packages to fix the transmission issue, but rejected them because of the cost $1,550 for valve body replacement and $4,450 for a new transmission in each vehicle.
While no injuries or deaths have been connected to the problem that causes the transmissions to “slip, buck, kick, jerk, and harshly engage,” the lawsuit does include reports of “numerous dangerous incidents where drivers lost control of class vehicles and struck or nearly collided with other cars, objects, or pedestrians, or had harrowing near-miss incidents with oncoming or overtaking traffic due to abrupt, unpredictable, and uncontrollable acceleration or deceleration caused by the transmissions’ failure to engage or maintain appropriate drive gear settings.”
Judge Lawson ruled there are adequate facts to suggest the vehicles were “not fit for the ordinary purpose of providing reasonably safe transportation” because of the specific transmissions and turned down the dismissal of the Ulrich lawsuit.
The lawsuit includes these General Motors vehicles equipped with Hydra-Matic 8L90 and 8L45 transmissions.
- 2015-2019 Chevrolet Silverado
- 2017-2019 Chevrolet Colorado
- 2015-2019 Chevrolet Corvette
- 2016-2019 Chevrolet Camaro
- 2015-2019 Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV
- 2016-2019 Cadillac ATS
- 2016-2019 Cadillac ATS-V
- 2016-2019 Cadillac CTS
- 2016-2019 Cadillac CT6
- 2016-2019 Cadillac CTS-V
- 2015-2019 GMC Sierra
- 2015-2019 GMC Yukon, Yukon XL, Yukon Denali XL
- 2017-2019 GMC Canyon
“[N]umerous dangerous incidents where drivers lost control of class vehicles and struck or nearly collided with other cars, objects, or pedestrians, or had harrowing near-miss incidents with oncoming or overtaking traffic due to abrupt, unpredictable, and uncontrollable acceleration or deceleration caused by the transmissions’ failure to engage or maintain appropriate drive gear settings.”