— Cadillac SRX dim headlights allegedly cause drivers to fear driving at night, so says a proposed class-action lawsuit filed in Florida.
Plaintiffs Christine Davis, Anna Macias and Leonardo Macias filed the headlight lawsuit that proposes to include all consumers who purchased or leased 2010-2015 Cadillac SRX SUVs.
According to the lawsuit, the seals GM used in the exterior headlight housing units wear out and deteriorate and allow moisture to accumulate and condense from the air that flows through the vents.
However, the plaintiffs also allege the vents for the housing units are defective because they interfere with the flow of air through the faulty seals of the headlights.
The condensation causes headlight problems that include failure of the bulbs due to corrosion of the components such as the igniters, in addition to electrical shorts that occur. A driver will allegedly notice very dim headlights or no light at all.
Since 2011 and in an effort to do something about owners complaining about the headlights being too dim or failing completely, General Motors allegedly issued a customer satisfaction program and several technical service bulletins (TSBs). But the plaintiffs claim GM's efforts haven't fixed the dim headlights.
Additionally, Cadillac allegedly replaces the bad SRX headlight components with the same defective headlight assemblies, forcing owners to pay for repairs because Cadillac dealers allegedly refuse to fix things under the warranties.
The plaintiffs complain GM should have recalled the SRX SUVs long ago to fix the dim headlights but has so far refused to do so.
Plaintiff Christine Davis says she purchased a used 2015 Cadillac SRX in 2016 from a Cadillac dealership in Florida. Davis says by February 2017 she noticed the headlights were dim and there was condensation that made the lenses look gray.
Her husband removed and cleaned the headlights and lenses, which did help for a while before the dim headlights returned. Davis says she took the SRX to a Cadillac dealer to finally have the headlights repaired, but the problem allegedly happened again.
According to the lawsuit, her SRX headlights continue to be dim and malfunction, leaving her in fear they will fail while driving at night.
As for plaintiffs Anne and Leonardo Macias, they say they bought a used 2011 Cadillac SRX from a Florida dealer in October 2014. Only three months later, the plaintiffs claim they noticed the headlights started having problems, which caused the SUV to stay parked at night unless absolutely needed.
Mr. and Mrs. Macias says while driving the SRX at night, a car pulled out of a parking lot and nearly hit their Cadillac. The plaintiffs say they pulled off the road and saw the low-beam headlights had completely failed, forcing them to drive home with the lamps in "bright" mode.
Sometime between May and July 2015, Mrs. Macias says she called a Cadillac dealership to complain about the dim and failing headlights and was told repairs would cost about $1,500. The plaintiff says she then called the corporate offices of Cadillac for help, phoning on three different occasions and talking to three different people.
On one occasion, the Cadillac representative allegedly suggested Davis search online for a genuine Cadillac headlight assembly to use as a replacement because the cost might be less than the $1500 she was quoted by the Cadillac dealer.
The plaintiff says she did exactly that, but the genuine assemblies were as bad as the original parts, so the replacements were removed and replaced with the original headlight assemblies.
Mr. and Mrs. Macias says they purchased and applied a headlight restoration kit to clean the exterior of the lenses themselves, but the headlights were still dim. Then the plaintiffs claim they purchased new headlight bulbs but still had problems with dim lights, problems that allegedly continue today.
The Cadillac SRX dim headlights lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division - Christine Davis, et. al, v. General Motors LLC.
The plaintiffs are represented by Berger & Montague P.C.
A similar lawsuit was filed in California in June 2017 that also claims SRX headlights are too dim because of faulty seals.
