General Motors Sued Over Alleged CVT Failures That Can Cut Power at Highway SpeedsMotorBiscuitAlex HarringtonSat, September 26, 2026 at 3:00 PM UTCAdd us on GoogleGeneral Motors Sued Over Alleged CVT Failures That Can Cut Power at Highway SpeedsGeneral Motors is being sued over an alleged transmission problem on a part it's already expected to bin. A class action filed September 15 this year in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware accuses GM of selling hundreds of thousands of Chevrolets and GMCs with continuously variable transmissions that can slip, shudder, and occasionally stop sending power to the wheels altogether, sometimes at speeds of 70 mph.The named plaintiff, Sacramento resident John Williams, bought a 2025 Chevrolet Equinox RS from Epic Chevrolet for $36,587.12 in October of 2024. According to the 51-page complaint, rough shifting and sluggish acceleration appeared at around 7,000 miles, right after his first oil change. sBy 14,000 miles, still well inside GM's coverage window, he brought the car to the dealership for diagnostics. Rather than touch the transmission, the shop replaced his front axles and told him the fluid had been "topped off." The car, the suit says, still isn't fixed.The Models and the Alleged Defect2019–2025 Chevrolet Malibu2021–2025 Chevrolet Trailblazer2024 and newer Chevrolet Equinox2024 and newer GMC TerrainAdvertisementAdvertisementThe proposed class covers 2019-2025 Chevrolet Malibu, 2021-2025 Chevrolet Trailblazer, 2024-and-newer Chevrolet Equinox, and 2024-and-newer GMC Terrain models built with either the VT40 or TR690 CVT, both sharing the same clutch, valve-body, drive-chain, pulley, and bearing architecture despite going into different vehicles. The complaint specifically revolves around the clutch regulator valve as the likely root cause, alleging that when it sticks, drivers experience everything from a rubbery hesitation off the line to a full loss of forward gear in the middle of traffic.NHTSA's complaint database proves that this has been an issue for many drivers. Out of 1,494 total complaints across the four nameplates, 358 involve the transmission or powertrain, including 184 of 660 for the Malibu and 93 of 409 for the Trailblazer. One Malibu owner told the agency the failure would cause the car to "stall out" in an active lane of traffic. A Trailblazer owner reported a transmission that took a documented 15-second delay to engage forward gear after a shift into Drive, with no warning light ever coming on first.Technical Service Bulletin 24-NA-009 confirms that a stuck clutch regulator valve can trip diagnostic code P2714, officially logged as "Transmission Control Solenoid Valve Four Stuck Off," and that the same sticking valve can chew up the forward clutch piston and the transmission case in the process. A second bulletin, 16-151-24R, covers chain slip and judder across the TR690-equipped Equinox, Terrain, Trailblazer, and Malibu, and has been revised repeatedly since 2024. A third document, Preliminary Information Bulletin PIP6033 from December 2024, points to drive-chain and pulley damage as another possible culprit behind CVT slip and total loss of motion. None of it amounts to a recall, and the lawsuit argues dealers were routinely told to log the symptoms as intermittent or unreproducible rather than replace the unit.GM Is Already Walking Away From the CVTPerhaps the most damning detail isn't a complaint or a bulletin, it's GM's management of this part. The automaker has confirmed the 2027 Chevrolet Equinox will drop the CVT in favor of a conventional eight-speed automatic, with the Terrain expected to follow suit, a change that is assumed to be a direct response to owner frustration with the very transmission this lawsuit targets. It's hard to argue a part was fine all along when the company building it is already engineering a replacement.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe lawsuit seeks class certification, a court-ordered recall, warranty reform, and damages under California's Consumers Legal Remedies Act, the Song-Beverly Act, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, and common-law fraud and negligence claims. It also isn't GM's only transmission headache. The Sixth Circuit upheld class certification in August 2024 for a separate case covering roughly 800,000 vehicles with defective eight-speed automatics, and GM closed out a $175 million settlement over faulty piston rings in certain engines just last year.None of that history proves the CVT claims in this new filing, but it does establish a pattern of GM spending the past few years settling and defending against powertrain complaints faster than it's been fixing them. If you're shopping a used Equinox, Terrain, Trailblazer, or Malibu from these model years, a pre-purchase inspection focused specifically on shift quality under load isn't optional anymore. It's homework.