6. With respect to the ATF defect, GM developed a fix in 2018 (a flush with a conventional fluid it calls Mod1a). GM was aware that its proprietary ATF (212b and Option B) would fail in the presence of water and over time. GM however decided three things antithetical to good corporate citizenry. First, it forewent paying for a field action to replace for free all purchasers of its 8L transmissions made between 2014 and March 1, 2019. GM engineers encouraged the program, which at about $305 a vehicle would have cost GM about $592M. ECF No. 206-11, PageID.12487; ECF No. 206-12, PageID.12494. But in March of 2019, GM management rejected this request, but limited the flush to unsold vehicles. ECF No. 220-3, PageID.14608. Second, GM rejected even doing an Mod1a fluid flush even for all of its unsold vehicles that still had the defective transmission fluids. GM could have spent $73M to flush out all 240,893 unsold 8L vehicles in June of 2019. Id., PageID.7169. Instead, GM only replaced the defective ATF in 6,518 unsold Cadillacs and trucks in certain states where it expected customers to complain within warranty. ECF No.177-3, PageID.7168-7169. GM sold the remaining vehicles knowing it had an ATF that would fail over time. Finally, GM never alerted existing customers that it had a new ATF. Instead, GM decided that it would cover fluid flushes if the customer was under warranty and complained about Shudder to a dealer. ECF No. 200-15, PageID.11657. Essentially, GM hoped the customers would not learn about the fix for the problem GM created until after their warranty period elapsed. Several purchasers including Plaintiffs Dale Bland and Jacob and Britney Brellenthin wound up paying for the Mod1a fluid flush themselves after their warranty expired.
