Porsche Cayenne Owners Offered $45M Class Action Settlement

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Porsche Cars North America Inc. has agreed to pay up to $45 million to reimburse Porsche Cayenne owners for coolant pipe repairs as part of a class action settlement agreement filed with the court last week.

The Porsche Cayenne settlement will resolve a nearly two-year long legal battle over claims that Porsche knowingly installed faulty plastic cooling tubes in its model year 2003 to 2006 Cayenne vehicles that prematurely degrade and fracture, causing damage to the engine. Plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit claimed that instead of replacing the defective plastic coolant tubes, Porsche instead offered an “update kit” that contained aluminum coolant pipes that cost owners between $1,500 and $3,600 per vehicle.

A total of eight consumer class action lawsuits were filed by Porsche Cayenne owners starting in January 2011. The cases were consolidated into an MDL called In re: Porsche Cars North America Inc., Plastic Coolant Tubes Products Liability Litigation.

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.”

The car company continues to maintain that the allegations raised in the class action lawsuit don’t have merit because the plaintiffs only experienced problems with their vehicles after the warranties expired.

The proposed Porsche Cayenne class action settlement will cover 42,000 current and former U.S. owners of a 2003 to 2006 Porsche Cayenne vehicle with a V8 engine made between January 28, 2002 and December 5, 2006. Class Members will receive between $100 and $1,800 for past and future coolant pipe repairs as part of a claims filing process. The payment 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.

Plaintiffs in the Porsche Cayenne class action settlement asked the court to conditionally certify the Class for settlement purposes, in addition to approving the proposed settlement.

Top Class Actions will continue to provide updates to the Porsche Cayenne cooling tube settlement, including how to file a claim for reimbursement. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter below to receive class action settlement updates in your inbox each week.

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.