Court Preliminarily Approves Porsche Cooling Tube Class Action Settlement

Judge Gregory L. Frost has given preliminary approval to a $45 million class action settlement between Porsche Cars North America Inc. and Porsche Cayenne owners for allegedly faulty plastic cooling tubes.

The class action settlement, if given approval during the Final Fairness Hearing set on March 10, 2014, will resolve a two-year long legal battle over claims that Porsche allegedly installed faulty plastic cooling tubes in its 2003 to 2006 Cayenne vehicles that prematurely degrade and fracture, causing damage to the engine.

Together with the preliminary approval, the court certified and defined the Settlement Class as: “All persons in the United States who currently own or lease, or who previously owned or leased, a Class Vehicle. Excluded from the Settlement Class are the following: (a) officers and directors of PCNA; (b) the judge to whom this Action is assigned and any member of that judge’s immediate family; (c) persons with personal injury claims; and (d) persons who have submitted a timely and valid request for exclusion from the Settlement Class.”

The Class Vehicles consists of model year 2003 to 2006 Porsche Cayenne with all types of V8 engines and manufactured between January 28, 2002 and December 5, 2002.

Plaintiffs in the Porsche Cayenne class action lawsuit claimed that instead of replacing the defective plastic coolant tubes, Porsche instead offered an “update kit” with coolant pipes that cost owners $1,500 and $3,600 for each vehicle.

Class Members will receive between $100 and $1,800 for past and future coolant pipe repairs as part of a claims filing process. The amount will be based on whether they are claiming a past or future repair payment, as well as a percentage of the invoice price paid based on the mileage at the time of repair or replacement.

The class action settlement also calls for attorneys’ fees not to exceed $4.5 million and for the reimbursement of costs, expenses, and service payments to all Representative Class Plaintiffs not to exceed a total of $250,000.

Porsche denies any wrongdoing in agreeing to the class action lawsuit settlement, saying it only agreed to settle “after nearly two years of hard-fought litigation,” adding that “ongoing litigation would involve expensive and prolonged discovery, much of which would require travel to Germany [where Porsche is based] and translating documents from German to English.”

According to the settlement, Porsche “will arrange for the printing and mailing (via U.S. Mail) of the class  Notice to all Settlement Class members. No Settlement Administrator has been named yet. Top Class Actions will update readers when claim filing instructions become available. Keep checking www.TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter below to receive updates on this class action settlement and other class action lawsuit news.

The Porsche Cayenne Cooling Tube Class Action Lawsuit Settlement case is In re: Porsche Cars North America Inc., Plastic Coolant Tubes Products Liability Litigation, Case No. 2:11-md-02233, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of the Southern District of Ohio.

UPDATE: Details on how to file a claim for the Porsche Cayenne cooling tube settlement are available here.