Shawn O’Leary, a 43-year-old portfolio manager owner from Illinois, reported that the electronic braking system in his 2019 GMC Sierra Denali failed on January 4, sometime after he received repairs to the system in a recall.
He said he had to stand on the brake pedal just to get his vehicle to stop.
“It’s terrifying,” O’Leary told the Detroit Free Press. “I was only doing 10-15 mph, but I had my child in the back seat.”
Despite multiple visits to the dealership, O’Leary saw his brakes repeatedly malfunction.
During his final visit to the dealership, the dealer advised him not to use the OnStar app often used to start these vehicles.
“To me, that means [General Motors] knew there was a problem then and was putting people at risk,” O’Leary told Detroit Free Press before GM announced a second recall. “There’s been no owner-wide notification about this, why? This is a safety issue. We’re not that far removed from the ignition switch crisis, so what is GM’s culture?”
The ignition switch crisis O’Leary refers to involved the 2014 recall of 2.6 million cars with defective ignition switches that shut off engines and airbags. The defect was connected with 124 deaths.
Lemon Law Help by Knight Law Group is an automotive lemon law firm that exclusively practices in California. If you are a California resident who purchased or leased a defective vehicle from a licensed dealership in California, we may be able to help you get rid of your potential lemon and recover significant cash compensation. Model year restrictions apply: 2017–Present vehicle models only.
However, we cannot help those who reside outside of California or purchased their vehicle outside of California unless they are active duty members of the Armed Forces, nor will we be able to refer those to a lemon law firm in their states.
To learn more about the California Lemon Law and your legal rights, visit our guides on the California Lemon Law and Used Car Lemon Law for more information.
