Nissan Rogue Class Action Lawsuit Says Transmissions are Defective

A class action lawsuit claiming that the 2013 Nissan Rogue vehicle has a defective transmission has been removed to federal court.

Plaintiff Guadalupe Sweatman brings the class action forward on behalf of herself and all similarly affected customers who purchased or leased a 2013 Nissan Rogue vehicle.

The Nissan class action lawsuit was originally filed in California state court in January, but the case was removed to federal court on Feb. 16, 2018.

Sweatman claims that the vehicles are sold with defective continuously variable transmission, or CVT, and that while the vehicle is in use, the transmission fails in ways that render the vehicle unusable.

According to the Nissan class action lawsuit, a CVT has a continuous range of gear ratios and is designed to allow the vehicle to shift gears while driving in a smooth way. Theoretically, this design that makes it feel as if the vehicle has a gear for every speed. With a CVT, the driver should ideally not feel the gear shifts, or “shift shock.”

Allegedly, the 2013 Nissan Rogue’s CVTs are defective in such a way that makes them prone to failure while the car is being driven. As a result, the cars lose their ability to accelerate. This makes them dangerous to drive, because often times, drivers have to accelerate rapidly to merge and avoid collision.

The Nissan CVT class action lawsuit alleges that consumers have been injured in a range of ways. In some cases, consumers were injured physically when they were involved in car collisions as a result of their vehicles’ stalling transmissions. In other cases, consumers were injured financially, because they had to spend thousands of dollars to repair or replace the CVTs.

According to the Nissan Rogue class action lawsuit, Nissan has been well aware of the CVT defect for some time. They conducted internal testing, and received consumer complaints about the issue.

The Nissan Rogue CVT defect class action lawsuit goes on to say that the company is not only aware of the defect and sold the vehicles to consumers nonetheless, but “routinely denies consumers requests for reimbursement of the expenses incurred in connection with the transmission defect.” Allegedly, the car company “has not remedied the transmission defect, has not compensated consumers for the damages resulting from the defect,” even when the cars were under warranty.

Sweatman claims that she would not have purchased the 2013 Nissan Rouge had she known that the car had a defective continually variable transmission. In addition to seeking damages for herself and other similarly affected consumers, she aims to have Nissan remedy the CVT defect or stop the sale of defective cars and preserve the safety and confidence of consumers.

A similar class action lawsuit over the same issue was filed in November 2017 regarding alleged CVT defects in the 2012-2013 Nissan Versa vehicles.

Sweatman is represented by Adam Rose of the Law Office of Robert Starr.

The Nissan Rogue CVT Class Action Lawsuit is Guadalupe Sweatman v. Nissan North America Inc., Case No. 5:18-cv-00347-SVW-KK, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

UPDATE: The Nissan Rogue CVT Class Action Lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed on June 22, 2018.