Fiat Chrysler Unable to Shake Dodge Dart Transmission Class Action

Fiat Chrysler is unable to shake a class action lawsuit alleging the Dodge Dart’s manual transmission is defective.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel determined that two drivers who had filed the class action lawsuit against Chrysler in 2016 had sufficiently shown that there is reason to suspect the Dodge Dart’s clutch is defective, despite two previous motions by Fiat Chrysler to dismiss the claim.

Judge Curiel will allow the case to move forward, with some revisions to the drivers’ claims about the nature of the alleged defect.

In 2016, plaintiffs Carlos Victorino and Adam Tavitian alleged that Dodge Dart vehicles produced between 2013 and 2016, equipped with Fiat C635 manual transmission, were defective. They claimed that the manual transmission was defective in a way that causes “among other problems, the clutch pedal to lose pressure, stick to the floor, failed to engage/disengage fears.” According to the two drivers, the car stalled, failed to accelerate, and the transmission prematurely failed.

Victorino and Tavitian noted that Fiat Chrysler did offer a repair program for failed transmissions, but they claim that the company replaced the failed parts with the same type of parts that had the same defect. Additionally, the drivers claim that the company did not pay for “collateral damage” done to a car as a result of a transmission failure, as in the case of accidents caused by a Dodge Dart’s inability to accelerate quickly enough to avoid collision.

Fiat Chrysler and the two drivers disagreed on the nature of the defect in the transmission. The drivers claim excessive wear and tear was caused in the transmission by a fundamental materials incompatibility between metal and plastic components used in the transmission. Victorino and Tavitian allege that this leads the transmission fluid to be contaminated by debris and not perform as intended. They list numerous other defects, but generally claim that the transmission is defective as a whole.

Fiat Chrysler adamantly disagrees with this claim, arguing that the only defect present was in the clutch’s master cylinder, and that this defect was sufficiently remedied in the vast majority of cases by the extended warranty program, which paid for replacement parts.

In their initial complaint, the two plaintiffs brought forward multiple alleged defects in the Dodge Dart’s automatic transmission system. In his decision to let the Dodge Dart class action move forward, Judge Curiel noted that the two drivers did raise sufficiently supported concern that the defects were not the result of “normal wear and tear.” However, he did take issue with one of the plaintiff’s claims, striking it from what will move forward in court.

Tavitian claims that his Dodge Dart failed in part because of a fluid leak in the automatic transmission, a claim which Judge Curiel found to be insufficiently supported. He gave the drivers until April 6, 2018 to amend their motion for Class certification. 

The plaintiffs are represented by Jordan L. Lurie, Tarek H. Zohdy, Cody R. Padgett and Karen L. Wallace of Capstone Law APC.

The Dodge Dart Manual Transmission Defect Class Action Lawsuit is Victorino, et. al. v. FCA US LLC, Case No. 3:16-cv-01617, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

UPDATE: On June 1, 2018, a class action lawsuit alleging that Dodge Dart vehicles contain an unresolved manual transmission clutch defectmay not be certified because the proposed Class is not specific enough and the plaintiffs have not properly analyzed the damages, according to a California federal judge.