General Motors stopped the sale of its 2016-model-year GMC Acadia, Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Traverse large crossovers in the USA last week after it was uncovered the automaker had apparently sent the wrong fuel consumption data to the EPA to print on the vehicles’ new-car window stickers.
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GM plans to offer the owners cash in some form, the person said, adding that the compensation program could be rolled out to customers and dealers as soon as next week.
“If they changed that vehicle for pollution reasons and the 2015s passed pollution controls, I don’t understand why they would do that and cut fuel economy by 10 percent”, Fisher said.
As a result, the labels overstated fuel economy by 1 to 2 mpg, according to Automotive News.
GM said the error meant fuel economy was listed 1 to 2 miles per gallon higher than it should have been.
GM spokesman Nick Richards said Wednesday he doesn’t know why the pollution hardware was changed.
GM told dealers to stop selling the SUVs until new stickers could be printed.
Consumer Reports surmises those vehicles were similarly sold with better-than-actual fuel economy ratings, and that up to two million vehicles may be affected. GM had to conduct new emissions tests because of new hardware installed on the 2016 models, the company said.
The automaker hasn’t yet announced if it will compensate owners for the difference in gasoline costs. GM continues to work with regulators on the issue, it said.
The EPA fuel-economy ratings on the window stickers for these models were found to be inaccurate. When asked about this directly, GM declined to give a specific answer regarding any substantial changes to these vehicles.
If this problem extends to the full breadth of this model generation, it could potentially impact more than 2 million crossovers sold in the USA over the past decade.
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Correct fuel economies for all three of GM’s crossovers are 15 mpg city, 22 mpg highway, and 17 mpg combined for all-wheel drive models, and 15 mpg city, 22 mpg highway, 18 mpg combined for front-wheel drive models.
