Prior-Gen Chevy Cruze Diesel Emissions Lawsuit - Witch-hunt?

[Gorehamj]

John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
2-20-2017

Our West-Coast correspondent at GM-Trucks.com, Chris Hawkins, spotted a news item we felt should be shared with the group, if only for future reference. Last week, John Voelcker of Green Car Reports, and also the Detroit News, overviewed the latest word on a lawsuit filed against General Motors claiming that the Chevy Cruze diesel was falsely advertised as a "Clean Vehicle." The suit goes back to June of 2016, but the important recent news is that, although many of the aspects of the suit have been dismissed, the judge overseeing the case has allowed it move forward to the discovery phase. In essence, the claims of deceptive advertising and fraudulent concealment were upheld by the court and will move ahead now to the evidence gathering stage. GM's spokesperson put a smile on this news, but a court validating that a claim has merit is never a good thing from a defendant's standpoint.

 

Although not directly in synch with the claim in court, it has been apparent to those that report on diesel vehicles for some time that marketing them as "Clean" in any way is on its face a false claim. Setting aside CO2 emissions, and the debate about whether or not CO2 is a pollutant (the Supreme Court has ruled it is), diesel engines, even with modern, active emissions systems using DEF, are not cleaner than the mainstream gasoline engines in their segment. They are simply designed to meet the same standards for pollution. Marketing them as "Clean" is an obvious attempt by automakers to infer that these vehicles are in some way "cleaner or greener" than the most polluting vehicles allowed in America, which they are not. Specifically, with regard to oxides of nitrogen, long considered a pollutant. Despite claims to the contrary, diesel vehicles do not produce less CO2 per mile than the leading gasoline engines in their segment. So, from that perspective, the claim of "clean" is easy to challenge. As the EPA data below shows, the Cruze diesel is not cleaner in regard to emissions than even its own gasoline models, and it produces more CO2 than three of the four gasoline Cruze models of that same year. As a side note, the Cruze also consumes more petroleum per year than three of the four gasoline drivetrains Chevy put in the Cruze that year.

 

More ominously, the Judge in the case says that the group bringing the case has grounds to explore if GM set up the Cruze in a way that "triggered the Cruze Clean Turbo Diesel functions when the vehicle was being tested, but deactivated the system when the vehicle was actually in use.” In other words, the group alleges that GM did exactly what VW did and is seeking most of the same settlements VW ended up with. This may be a witch-hunt, and we will give GM the benefit of the doubt, but it will be interesting to see how the discovery phase proceeds.

[Colossus]

Oh I don't know.. I think it is clean, given how great of fuel economy it gets. Also it is clean if you wash it!

[KARNUT]

Hmmm go buy one if it turns out like the VW they'll buy it back with some money to boot. My brother got that deal with the vw. Otherwise you got a nice car.