Cadillac SRX Lawsuit Over Faulty Headlights Dismissed

A class action lawsuit that alleged faulty Cadillac SRX headlights last year was recently dismissed by a U.S. District Court judge.

Filed by a plaintiff in Virginia who claimed that the headlights on his 2016 Cadillac SRX had become moisture damaged and were too dim to drive safely at night. The moisture damage was a result of faulty seals within the headlight housing that wore out, allowing water to collect inside the headlight assembly and cause damage to the lens and electric components. The plaintiff filed a class action lawsuit against Cadillac and its parent company, General Motors, and alleged that the automaker was aware of the faulty headlight issues prior to the sale of this particular 2016 Cadillac SRX.

However, a judge dismissed these claims, stating that “action for breach of any contract for sale must be commenced within four years after the cause of action has accrued,” according to Car Complaints. Since the plaintiff purchased the vehicle in 2016 and filed the class action lawsuit in 2021, this was considered to be well outside of the four-year statute of limitations regarding warranty work. This is despite the plaintiff’s argument that the statute of limitations should be ignored because Cadillac concealed the alleged defects from customers. The judge did not agree with this claim, stating that the plaintiff did not have enough facts to back up his statement. 

The plaintiff argued that Cadillac was aware of the faulty headlights when it sold him the vehicle, citing a series of Technical Service Bulletins (TSBs) that directly reference and attempt to address the faulty seals within the headlight assemblies. However, the judge dismissed this claim as well, stating that the communications in question did “not specifically reference the Headlight Defect claimed by Plaintiff.” 

This is not the first time a class action lawsuit has been filed regarding problematic headlights in the second-generation Cadillac SRX. A similar class action lawsuit was filed in Michigan last year, and SRX owners with similar complaints continue to discuss the topic on our forum about the issue. 

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