Class Action Law Suit in America
A class action suit against American Honda Motor Company involving the use of Michelin PAX tires was settled in December 2008. The settlement states that the PAX tire system should continue to be used with cars originally equipped with PAX system. The original warranty has been extended to 36,000 miles, although it is unclear as to whether it is the materials and workmanship portion of the warranty or the hazard insurance portion of the warranty, or both. Also left unanswered is what happens to the trip interruption payments, and the guarantee to get a replacement tire delivered within one day if the car is stranded beyond the 125 mile flat tire driving limit since PAX certified repair shops are not as plentiful as standard tire repair shops. In addition, a spare tire kit will be offered by Honda for those cars originally equipped with the PAX system tires since servicing may be impractical in certain geographic areas. If a spare has already been purchased, Honda will reimburse the owner approximately $110.00. The class claims should be made by January 2010. Affected owners are referred to the sfmslaw.com web site, the attorneys responsible for the class action suit.
Parenthetically, it appears that the major impetus for the class action was the poor treadwear performance of the PAX tire on the Touring Edition of the third generation Honda Odyssey minivan built for the North American market. The Michelin PAX System Latitude LX4 tires apparently did not have the claimed lifetime, and the lack of universal repair and replacement facilities (PAX tires cannot be serviced at any tire shop, but only those with special equipment and specially trained personnel) and the cost to replace PAX tires were major factors for the class action. Rather than alleging the PAX system was defective, the suit charged that the PAX tires and special wheels were unreasonably difficult to repair or replace.
Since the lawsuit was against both Michelin North America and American Honda, the American Honda luxury division Acura was also included. Certain models of the Acura RL were equipped with higher performance PAX System Michelin Pilot HX MXM4 tires. Anecdotally, informal internet searches will reveal that the Acura RL PAX tires did not have the poor wear performance experienced by the Honda Odyssey PAX tires. However, many Acura RL owners did complain about difficulty in seeking repair and replacement, as well as higher than expected repair or replacement costs.
Read more about this topic: Michelin PAX System
Famous quotes containing the words class, action, law, suit and/or america:
“There might be a class of beings, human once, but now to humanity invisible, for whose scrutiny, and for whose refined appreciation of the beautiful, more especially than for our own, had been set in order by God the great landscape-garden of the whole earth.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“It has always been my practice to cast a long paragraph in a single mould, to try it by my ear, to deposit it in my memory, but to suspend the action of the pen till I had given the last polish to my work.”
—Edward Gibbon (1737–1794)
“At the end of one millennium and nine centuries of Christianity, it remains an unshakable assumption of the law in all Christian countries and of the moral judgment of Christians everywhere that if a man and a woman, entering a room together, close the door behind them, the man will come out sadder and the woman wiser.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“O thou, whatever title suit thee!
Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie,”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)
“We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcæ, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveller’s cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)