GM To Compensate Some Vehicle Owners For Misstated Mileage

Last week, General Motors revealed that it had incorrectly calculated the fuel economy on three models of SUV. The carmaker stopped the sale of these vehicles and is now going through the mea culpa process, trying to make things right with drivers who already own one of these SUVs.

Today, the company alerted dealers that it would try to make it up to thousands of customers by providing them a prepaid gift card valued between $450 and $1,500 or an extended warranty, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Under the program, which will begin on May 25, customers who purchased a 2016 Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia, or Buick Enclave can choose between a debit card or a 48-month/60,000-mile service protection plan that improves their existing factory warranty.

Those who leased one of the affected vehicles will be offered a debit card.

The value of the debit cards will be determined based on whether or not the vehicle was leased or owned, and what type of vehicle it is.

“We designed this reimbursement program to provide full and fair compensation in a simple, flexible and timely manner,” a GM spokesman said, apologizing to customers for the misstated labels.

GM’s issues came to light last week when the company alerted the Environmental Protection Agency that engineers had discovered that fuel-economy labels on the affected vehicles overstated mileage by one to two miles a gallon.

The carmaker maintains that the error was related to new emissions tests conducted required for model year 2016 and onward.

Where the WSJ points out that there is no evidence the errors were made deliberately, our colleagues at Consumer Reports examined whether the discrepancies are present in older model vehicles.

“When Consumer Reports looked at our own historical test data next to fuel economy numbers from the Environmental Protection Agency and GM’s own claims, it seemed like there might be more to this story,” the publication wrote. “It’s possible that the stated figures for the Enclave, Traverse, Acadia, and also the discontinued Saturn Outlook may have been incorrect for years.”

If the issue extends beyond the currently affected models, CR estimates it could be found in nearly two million vehicles.

A spokesperson for GM told CR that it had “found no other models or model years were affected.”

GM Offers Cash or Extended Warranty Over Crossover Fuel Economy Labels [The Wall Street Journal]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist