The lawyer firm of Hagens Berman has been a pretty busy place lately. Not only are they handling the lawsuits connected to the Volkswagen diesel case, they also went after General Motors for their diesel trucks and the lost value of 2009-14 GM vehicles over the ignition key deal, Toyota’s “unintended acceleration” suits, the suit against Ford over the Shelby GT350 over the “limp home” deal, an on and on it seems. A less rational human might think that Steve Berman and his team just have it out for the automobile, period. And with their latest lawsuit, again with Ford, it might be the case.Hagens Berman have filed a lawsuit claiming that at least half a million Ford Super Duty pickups are equipped with defeat devices that allow the Power Stroke diesel engine to emit up to 50 times the legal limit for nitrogen oxide. The claim is fifty-eight “alleged violations of state consumer law, false advertising, and racketeering claims”, according to Bloomberg Also named in the suit is Bosch, the beleaguered German automotive supplier that has been connected to other diesel lawsuits.
The timing comes as Ford introduces a 3.0L V6 diesel that is sourced from Land Rover, which is set to go agains the Ram EcoDiesel pickup in the half-ton fullsize diesel battle (like we needed another one with the Heavy Duty Towing War still very much alive.) Consumers are clamoring for pickup trucks and the market is still very much alive, but the junior diesel market has been tainted already. FCA’s EcoDiesel was caught with a mistake that the company claimed and has pushed a fix for about 150,000 vehicles already on the road. General Motors’ suit was against their Duramax heavy-duty models and flatly denies any wrongdoing.
Call us suspicious, but we are viewing this suit somewhere between a timing ploy to potentially intimidate Ford from putting out another diesel-powered product and a witch hunt. Or maybe we’ve grow weary of seeing yet another massive lawsuit against a manufacturer that . Either way, we will be watching what happens, especially once the Environmental Protection Agency weighs in with their opinions on the subject.
Considering the fraudulent mileage estimates, the unsafe at any speed towing capacity claims, plus all the bean counter bad engineering they have dumped on us, the pickup truck making companies deserve all the class action lawsuits brought against them! I have no sympathy for them.
I agree with Mouse
Diesel engines are not “clean” – they are better off being used in industrial settings and transit for big rigs.
yeah – all the billy bobs out there think they are cool spouting smoke and rolling coal. Not.
The manufacturers are getting caught because they know diesels are not clean – and the emissions goals set by the EPA are unrealistic. So they are forced to cheat to meet the numbers. All the while deceiving the consumer – ask VW how well there reputation survives the mess they created – they’ve lost a customer for life in my case.
diesel engines are CLEANER than Gas engines,even though we can see \”Rolling Coal\” ON HARD ACCELERATION,it is alot cleaner than the unseen crap being spewed out of the Gas engine exhaust.In cities in the hot months the air pollutants are through the roof
(LA,California etc) 96% of the auto\’s are GAS POWERED .If gas\” is \”so much cleaner why then isn\’t it used in Cruise ships,trains,large tankers heavy equipment etc as its main source of energy? because it is 60%ish worse than diesel emissions .Just because you see it ,dosen\’t make it WORSE than the unseen
Diesel is half the cost to produce. Cruise liners and ships of that sort are run on crude oil. Your response is ignorant. Gasoline isn’t used because of cost, not polluting factors…
Also, gasoline is used in cars to save weight. Compare a diesel weight to gasoline engines weight… you would have 8k pound cars on average, rather than 4k …..
I say the EPA needs to take their emissions levels and shove them. They have not only gone after pretty much every diesel manufacturer (and in Europe after the VW thing, 12 more manufacturers were caught with something).
But why do I think they need to scrap their emissions regulations? Because it is hurting not only the consumer, but the manufacturers, their employees and even the court systems. The only people gaining from these ridiculous requirements are lawyers.
They have not only gone after automobile/light truck guys. They have also gone after Medium truck. International had major issues with the regulations and several other manufacturers have had to make some critical decisions. Cat stepped out of the over-the-road market (still selling the terrible polluting engines all across the world just not in north America and Europe).
The regulations are to stringent, to quickly and are making issues all over the board. Reliability is down, maintenance costs are up, down time is up and vehicle costs are way up.
How does the emissions regulations help anyone? They don’t. Next they’ll be going after planes, trains and anything else they can tax and sue. They wont be happy until we are back to horse and buggy.
What pj said. If there wasn’t a ton of money in it the attorneys wouldn’t touch it. They are not in it for anything other than the buck.
Add this to the long lost of reasons why the US needs loser pays tort reform. If I ever visit the grave of Richard Nixon I’ll spit on it over joe creation of the EPA.
Government regulation has helped the US auto industry, consumers and yes even the performance crowd, Without clean air requirements we would likely not have the advancements (and certainly not the pace of advancement) that allows 400+ HP cars with good fuel mileage and excellent reliability. Yes, there are downside costs and there certainly are changes that could be made within the regulations that would not affect air quality and would lower SOME costs at the margin. I’m 50 and cut my teeth during the malaise era so I am familiar with the worst of the emissions controls and the poor performance that resulted.
I have been involved in Service departments for Ford, Mazda, Volvo, BMW, SAAB, Honda and was a service manager for Saturn. I dealt with the acid rain fallout. Guess what, when your brand new cars paint is jacked because it was IN THE RAIN people get really pissed. That was a direct result of vehicle and power plant emissions. It doesn’t happen anymore because of the EPA and Clean Air Act and particulate emission control from power plants and diesel trucks etc…It certainly isn’t perfect but the air is cleaner some problems have been solved and I can go buy a DOHC aluminum V8 with a 10 speed auto and run low 12’s high 11’s when I pull off the lot. Additionally EFI reduces wear greatly so my killer car last ALOT longer ( remember how bad cylinder wall ridges were when everything was carbed?? I do and I am still amazed at how good cylinder bores look on new motors after 100k+ )
I drive a semi now so I know about the DEF hassles and regen etc…I’ll still take it over watching every big rig belch smoke and particles that I and everyone else has to breathe.
Younger people have grown up without the worst of the pollution prior to modern regulations. They don’t remember the Cuyahoga river burning not once but twice, high blood lead levels and yellow air that you could see and still had to breathe. Check out China and India if you want to see life without clean air and water. I guarantee you wont like it. The Big 3 almost went under because they wouldn’t change with the times in the 70’s and again in the 2000’s. Theses companies are stronger the products are better and they compete world wide better than they ever have. Next time you have the air on getting 20+ mpg rolling down the highway coming back from 10,11 or 12 second runs at the track part of that is because of the EPA. I don’t agree with everything they do but I sure like to breathe.
Market demands made companies reach those improvements despite the regulations.
Perfect response.
All this talk… is just talk. I have a 1976 Pontiac with a 406 in small block Chevy with a Holley four barrel that gets 26 mpg at eighty miles an hour. If a mechanic can do it with a 50 year old car why are we not getting a 100 MPG from the new engineers? Hint its in the taxes that you pay on each gallon of gas! Oh and lets put in a fuel additive that MAKES YOU USE MORE (alcohol). I use 100% gas and get 50 more miles per tank with only a 16 gallon tank!!!!
Ah, not to worry. Trump will do away with the EPA & we can once again have those black soot belching power plants & diesel stacks that look so cool.
Clean diesels are better for everyone weather you like it or not. I have worked on school bus for 25 years now, so I to have seen the yellow nasty air and the black sooted garages. You should try standing in a bus lot with 140 dirty diesels trying to warm up on a 20 degree morning, then tell me the EPA is garbage. I could smell the 1/2 mile away on the drive to work!
I think the issues with the car companies is just about profits. They are using EPA as a fall guy. Come on you know they budget a certain amount for R and D for everything from door latches to pistons. Look at Smokey’s vapor engines .great horse power, great MPG .and almost no emissions.He wrote that he had spoke to all the major auto companies. No one seemed to care. You have to be out of your mind to think we don’t need the EPA. Hell get rid of OSHA also. We can all trust big companies to do the right thing. I’m sorry to all those of you who don’t have anyone to think about besides yourself. I have a bunch of grand kids. Why don’t they deserve clean air and water?Man will slowly kill this planet if we don’t watch what we do. And not let profit make up our minds. This may be a big surprise to some of you. But there is more to life than money
Workplace injury and death rates were declining faster prior to OSHA than after, and at less cost. The market sorts this stuff out better than any expensive beaurocracy ever will.
for any fool that wants epa gone, a little history. back in the early 70\’s, the way to get rid of the toxins was to bury it. I help bury at least 30 tons in a farmers field. now what if your water aquafier is under that 30 tons of buried toxins. are you going to drink the water?
but wait, I have a better deal, since you are against the epa and want to bring back the old days, let me come over to your place and spray ddt, sporekill, telvar, malathion parathion on you, your family and your property. it won\’t hurt much.
I have no love for assholes who are against the epa regualtions.
Please. DDT works and is harmless to humans, Ive got cloathing that came dipped in pramithrin, and malathion keeps the bugs at bay at my place. You must love the taste of boot leather or get your paycheck from one of these agencies.
Diesels are much more efficient than gas especially when towing. I lived in Germany for 5 years where at least 50% of the cars were oil burners and I didn’t think smog was an issue at any point. We need more small commuter diesels and less soccer moms in SUVs. JMHO.
In southern NH is the Superfund site, Beede Waste Oil. The EPA licensed
Beede for waste oil disposal, and a lot of area garages used it. Well, it seems
that Beede was just dumping it, polluting the ground where the company was.
After the EPA seized the assets of the company, they went after all the customers, fining them for using the disposal company that the EPA licensed!
Many went bankrupt from the legal battles and subsequent fines.
In 2015 the EPA caused the Gold KIng Mine disaster, but bears no responsibility for cleaning it up. Great example of government “don’t do as I do, do as I say”! Nice goin’ EPA!!