Volvo Buyers Win Certification in Leaky Sunroof Class Action Lawsuit
By Mike Holter
Volvo buyers in six states won class certification in a class action lawsuit accusing Volvo Cars of North America of selling vehicles with defective sunroof drainage systems.
U.S. District Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh on Tuesday certified the proposed state subclasses, which consist of all current and former owners or lessees of a 2000-2012 model year Volvo S40, S60, S70, S80, V50, V70 or XC90 vehicle in the following states: California, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
Judge Cavanaugh, however, declined to certify a nationwide class of Volvo buyers because plaintiffs were bringing claims under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, which cannot be applied nationally.
Plaintiffs in the 2010 Volvo sunroof class action lawsuit allege Volvo “had longstanding knowledge of a material design defect” in the vehicles’ sunroofs, which begins to manifest shortly after the limited warranty expires. They based this on the assertion that Volvo issued several technical service bulletins in an attempt to address the problem.
The alleged sunroof defect allows water to enter the passenger compartment and create “sloshing” and “soaking wet” floor mats.
The case is similar to a class action lawsuit accusing Volkswagen and Audi of also selling vehicles with leaky sunroof problems (Dewey, et al. v. Volkswagen of America Inc., et al.).
In December, a federal court approved a $69 million class action settlement in the Dewey case that provided reimbursement to VW and Audi owners for repairs, replacements and/or cleaning costs associated with the leaky sunroofs.
The Volvo Sunroof Defect Class Action Lawsuit case is Joanne Neale, et al. v. Volvo Cars of North America LLC, et al., Case No. 2:10-cv-04407, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
The plaintiffs are represented by Chimicles & Tikellis LLP and Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman LLC.
UPDATE: On Sept. 28, 2018, plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit alleging certain Volvos have defective sunroofs urged a federal judge to certify their proposed Class in a new motion.
Updated March 28th, 2013
All class action and lawsuit news updates are listed in the Lawsuit News section of Top Class Actions
109 thoughts onVolvo Buyers Win Certification in Leaky Sunroof Class Action Lawsuit
I have a Volvo 2018 XC90 and am experiencing the same leaky sunroof/complete electrical failure issue. Car suddenly stopped while driving 35 mph and wouldn’t turn off. After being towed, dealership informed me it was full of water (completely unknown to me and completely invisible). Water came in through the rear sunroof drains, drained into the rear spare tire well and sloshed forward to the front of the car where it shorted out all the electrical modules near the front of the car. Am very lucky my kids weren’t in the car and that I wasn’t on the highway where I could have been rear ended and severely injured. Volvo is completely gaslighting me -saying I should have known to “check and clean my sunroof drains” and that this was due to the car being outside and an unprecedented amount of rain. As if it’s illegal to keep your car outside if you have a sunroof! The car had gone through a multipoint inspection 3 months prior where the topic of “maybe we should check your sunroof drains” never came up. I have only had this car serviced at the dealership and have always performed whatever maintenance checks/repairs they’ve recommended. Car has 89K on it and is basically useless. No guarantees that it won’t happen again or that the electronics won’t suddenly fail on me without warning. I am terrified to drive this car with my children in it and am incredibly upset with Volvo for not acknowledging this potentially fatal safety issue. Would be very interested in joining this lawsuit.