Which Automaker Has the Most Lawsuits Against It?

Which automaker has the most lawsuits filed against it? Hint: it's not Tesla.
Written by Andrew Kidd
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
We've established that
automakers
are no stranger to massive lawsuits when it comes to their products. But which automotive company has the most lawsuits against it?
With the litany of lawsuits Tesla has faced (and is currently facing) in recent years, you'd assume it'd be at the top of the list of most-sued automakers. But that's not the case, as one domestic automaker trumps the rest when it comes to litigation against it.

The most-sued automaker is General Motors

General Motors is the most-sued automaker according to data compiled in 2017 and reported by
CleanTechnica
. The automaker had 260 lawsuits filed against it in that year, while the runner-up, Chrysler, had just 36. Toyota followed with 30 lawsuits, with Ford next at 18.
This data's old and it doesn't go into much detail about what the litigation is actually about, but fear not: GM is still having suits filed against it.
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More suits, more problems

In 2021, GM faced a
class-action
suit alleging that it knowingly sold vehicles with a faulty fuel management lifter. The defect could cause vehicles to stall, lose power or hesitate while driving, which could potentially put drivers' lives in danger.
A class-action suit filed in April of 2022 alleged that 2.4-liter engines in affected GM vehicles were prone to clogs in its intake manifold that could cause crankcase pressure to exceed normal parameters, causing the engine's rear main seal to fail. This could lead to an oil leak and total engine failure if left unaddressed.
More recently in May 2022, GM faced another class-action lawsuit over the performance of its eight-speed automatic transmission. The suit alleges that GM vehicles equipped with the transmission are prone to jerking, hesitation, surging and lurching while in operation—and that GM has been aware of the issue for nearly a decade.
That's not to mention the lawsuits from employees alleging discrimination and harassment.

GM also has a lot of lemon law claims

Californians are particularly fed up with GM's shenanigans; data from nonprofit public interest research groups reported by
KPBS
showed which automakers were sued the most under California's Lemon Law between 2018 and 2021.
The
California Lemon Law
forces automakers to replace a vehicle or refund the purchase costs of the vehicle when it is unable to repair a vehicle to conform to the manufacturer’s original warranty after a reasonable number of repair attempts.
At the top of that list is GM, which faced one lawsuit for every 78 cars sold in the state, while Toyota faced the least lawsuits at one suit per 2,029 vehicles sold. Automakers that are sued the most under the law, the report found, tend to be the ones putting forth the most effort to have the Lemon Law repealed.
In California specifically, if a dealer buys back a "lemon" car and resells it, they must label that vehicle as a "Lemon Law Buyback" and include a decal on the side of the vehicle stating such. It's not a good look for relatively new vehicles.

Make sure you're properly covered

If your car qualifies as a lemon, you should definitely seek some recompense from the automaker. But if it's damaged from an accident, you'll want to make sure you're properly covered.
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