Engines included in the suit are Hyundai/Kia’s Nu, Gamma, Theta, Lambda and Kappa engines. This affects nearly every new or current Hyundai/Kia model that has gone on sale in the last decade:
The lawsuit also claims that Hyundai should have issued a recall over the consumption issues, something I’m just now realizing was never done.
A federal judge in California has put one class-action lawsuit in peril and approved a settlement in another alleging defects in Hyundai and Kia engines. The Korean automaker’s billion-dollar-plus legal liability is on top of the largest civil penalty the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ever levied against an automaker.
On May 11,2021 U.S. District Judge Staton approved a $1.3 billion settlement that consolidated several 2017 and 2018 nationwide class action lawsuits, alleging that Hyundai Kia refused to recall vehicles with the Theta II GDI engine, even though the automaker knew the engine was defective.
Representing 3.9 million owners of Hyundai and Kia vehicles, roughly in the 2011 to 2019 model years, the plaintiffs charged that the Theta II GDI was prone to catastrophic failures and non-collision fires, which exposed vehicle owners to safety hazards and economic losses.
This ruling comes on the heels of Judge Staton’s dismissal last week, with leave to amend, of another California class action lawsuit alleging that Hyundai/Kia vehicles were defective dur to excessive oil consumption.
Judge Staton ruled that this complaint, filed in August 2020, failed to assign a cause other than poor manufacturing quality.
My wife had a 2016 Elantra Gt with 56,000 miles on it that launched a rod thru the side of the block without warning. Fucillo Hyundai in Watertown said they would replace the engine but it would probably take them a couple of months to get the new one and do the repair so she opted to get a new 2018 Elantra GT. Three years and about 54,000 miles later still running strong. I guess we'll find out.
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