0310 GM Deposition

VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs.
GENERAL MOTORS
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I N T H E S TAT E COURT O F COBB COUNTY STATE O F GEORGIA KENNETH D AV I D MELTON AND MARY ELIZABETH MELTON, I n d i v i d u a l l y , a n d a s A d m i n i s t r a t o r s o f t h e E s t a t e o f J E N N I F E R BROOKE MELTON, deceased, Plaintiffs, C i v i l A c t i o n 2 0 11 - A - 2 6 5 2
VS
June 11, 2013

3 1 A P P E A R A N C E S CONTINUED: 2 3 KENNETH SISCO (Telephonically) 4 Law Offices of Ian R. Rappaport 5 5565 Glenridge Connector, Suite 500 6 Atlanta, Georgia 30342 7 (678) 473-3387 8 Appearing on behalf of Defendant DEI 9 Holdings, Inc. 10 11 A L S O PRESENT: 12 P a t r i c k Murphy, Videographer 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
GENERAL MOTORS L L C , THORNTON CHEVROLET, I N C . , B I L L HEARD CHEVROLET A T TOWN CENTER, LLC, a n d D E I HOLDINGS, I N C . , Defendants. VIDEOTAPED 3 0 ( b ) ( 6 ) D E P O S I T I O N DEPONENT: V I C T O R H A K I M DATE: T u e s d a y , J u n e 1 1 , 2 0 1 3 TIME: 1 0 : 1 1 a . m . LOCATION: W e s t i n D e t r o i t M e t r o p o l i t a n A i r p o r t 2501 W o r l d g a t e w a y P l a c e D e t r o i t , M i c h i g a n 48242 REPORTER: A n g e l a E . B r o c c a r d o , C S R 4 6 7 9
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1 APPEARANCES:
2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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TABLE OF CONTENTS WITNESS VICTOR HAKIM EXAMINATION BY MR. COOPER EXAMINATION BY MR. KALFLIS EXAMINATION BY MR. FRANKLIN RE-EXAMINATION BY MR. COOPER PAGE PAGE 6 169 176 198
3 L A N C E A. COOPER 4 T h e Cooper Firm 5 7 0 1 Whitlock Avenue, S.W. 6 B u i l d i n g J, Suite 43 7 M a r i e t t a , Georgia 30064 8 ( 7 7 0 ) 427-5588 9 A p p e a r i n g on behalf of the Plaintiffs. 10 11 H A R O L D E. FRANKLIN, JR. 12 K i n g & Spalding, LLP 13 1 1 8 0 Peachtree Street, N.E. 14 A t l a n t a , Georgia 30309 15 - ( 4 1 4 ) 572-3539 16
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10 E X H I B I T D E S C R I P T I O N 11 ( E x h i b i t s attached to transcript.) 12 E x h i b i t No. 1 Amended Notice 5 13 E x h i b i t No. 2 Cobalt Claims Volume 1 14 E x h i b i t No. 3 15 E x h i b i t No. 4 16 E x h i b i t A 17 E x h i b i t No. 5
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
8 9 2 6
Cobalt Claims Volume II Claims Notebook 1 4
A p p e a r i n g on behalf of the Defendant General
Defendant's Objections to Notice 1 7 5 Bates Pages 37595 through 37610 2 0 1
17 4 1 1 . . . Motors, LLC 19 S H A W N N. KALFUS 20 F r e e m a n , Mathis & Gary, LLP 21 lott 1 0 0 Galleria Parkway, Suite 1600 2 n ) t %a , . Georgia . 3 0 3 9 3 (770) 818-4250 22 24 A p p e a r i n g on behalf of Defendant Thornton 25 C h e v r o l e t , Inc.
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VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS

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1 f o r GM and its subsidiaries and would like to continue 2 3 t o support the company. Indeed, prior to this matter, I have never had a complaint with any of my GM
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1 d i d n ' t make Ms. Civardi aware of the bulletin and the 2 p o t e n t i a l fix to the stalling problem? 3 M R . FRANKLIN: Object to form. 4 T H E WITNESS: Yeah, I do not. 5 B Y MR. COOPER: 6 Q . I f you can go to tab 5, please, sir. Right there, tab 7 5 . 8 A . T h a t last claim, there was a repurchase, it looks 9 l i k e , right, of that vehicle? 10 Q . Correct, they chose to repurchase -11 A . S o they did repurchase the vehicle from the customer. 12 Q . Ta b 5. It's Markeese Hampton from Maryland made a 13 14 15 16 c l a i m involving a 2005 Chevy Cobalt. The claim was o p e n e d on May 2nd of 2005, and the vehicle had 3 , 0 0 0 miles on it; correct? A . Correct.
4 v e h i c l e s , and I continue to have respect for the 5 s e r v i c e personnel at my dealership. But, now, as you 6 m i g h t imagine, I am saddened and disappointed that Mr 7 Y e a r w o o d seemed indifferent to my plight and I am 8 a f r a i d to drive this car. 9 " P l e a s e consider this letter notice of a 10 s e r i o u s potential hazard and defect that should be 11 i n v e s t i g a t e d , especially in view of the fact that the 12 C o b a l t is a new model." 13 D i d 14 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
15 Q . D o you know why the dealership and GM didn't tell 16 M s . Civardi about the technical service bulletin? 17 A . N o , I don't know, and I don't know if the bulletin was 18 o u t at that time or not. I don't recall. 19 Q . We l l , we saw earlier in the first claim that the 20 b u l l e t i n was out because they talk about the bulletin 21 22 23 i n M T the March claim, don't they? R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: I don't remember. Can you
17 Q . A n d again, the agent note is stalls? 18 A . Correct. 19 Q . A n d customer states here down on the page: 20 " V e h i c l e stalls out while driving. Twice 21 w h i l e on the freeway. Took to dealer. Dealer said 22 c o u l d n ' t duplicate and customer should come back when 23 i t happens again. Customer states they are losing 24 c o n f i d e n c e in vehicle and believes it is a safety 25 c o n c e r n . "
24 p o i n t me back to that? 25 B Y MR. COOPER:
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1 Q . Well, the jury heard it. 2 D o you recall that? 3 4 M T R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: Can you point me back to the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 This is March 28th of two thousand -excuse me, March 8th of 2005. The claim was closed on March 28th of 2005. So as of March 28th, 2005, at least ording to this claim, the bulletin had to have been
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Did I read that correctly? A. Q. Yes. If you go to the next page, sir, ending in 49, the highlight there toward the bottom of the page. The CRM is assisting the customer, and the customer states: "Cobalt one month after purchase vehicle cuts off with a tractor-trailer behind him and it almost killed them. His wife was also in a similar situation where vehicle stalled while she was driving." Did I read that correctly? A. Q. A. Yes. Turn to tab 6, please, sir. Okay. MR. FRANKLIN: Lance, one moment. The copies that I've gotten don't have -- like yours and the witnesses, don't have the highlighted sections. I'm trying to follow, but you are going to have to bear with me so that I can make sure I am following what you're reading and asking the witness to read. What you've just read I take it is the bottom paragraph on page 18049; is that right? MR. COOPER: Correct. MR. FRANKLIN: The full paragraph there?
5 p a g e ? Do you mind? 6 B Y MR. COOPER: 7 Q . Sure. If you look back at tab 1. 8 A . Ta b . l . 9 . Q . Open date, March 8th, 2005. 10 D o you see that? 11 A . Ye s . 12 Q . 13 a t A claim -- the Rebecca Bowden claim, and if you look the first paragraph, which we read, in the middle of the paragraph says: "Customer states bulletin claims engines 16
17 18 19 20
may stall if driver is short and has a large key go.Vaip."
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
A.
issued; correctiLit It sounds that way, yes. Do you know then, sir, why Ms. Coelho or anyone at GM
25 Q .
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1 M R . COOPER: Correct.
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1 Q . I f you would go to tab 7, sir, please. 2 A . D o you mind if I look at the rest of that document? 3 Q . Sure. 4 A . A l l right. So the gist of that is they replaced a 5 d i o d e , but it kind of ended there. All right. 6 Q . T h e y never told Mr. Smith about the technical service 7 b u l l e t i n , did they? 8 9 M T R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: I didn't see that mentioned
2 M R . FRANKLIN: Okay. 3 B Y MR. COOPER: 4 Q . I f you go to tab 6, please, sir, Michael Smith from 5 T a m p a , Florida owned a 2005 Cobalt. Made a claim the_ 6 G M opened on May 3rd of 2005. The vehicle had 7 2 , 5 0 0 miles on it. And again, the agent note is 8 s t a l l s ; correct? 9 A . Correct. 10 Q . I n the second paragraph of this claim: 11 " C u s t o m e r states that his brand new car 12 k e e p s having continuous stalling problems while 13 v e h i c l e is moving and while in a stopped position. 14 C u s t o m e r is very concerned on a safety aspect that the 15 v e h i c l e will stall at a bad time. Customer states he 16 h a s only made one payment on vehicle, yet vehicle has 17 b e e n in the service department four to five times in 18 t h e first 2,500 miles on it." 19 D i d 20 A . Ye s . 22 p a r a g r a p h : 23 " C u s t o m e r states that he is very concerned 24 w i t h the safety of his vehicle. Customer states that 25 p r o b l e m usually happens at a stoplight with foot on I read that correctly?
10 i n the document, but they did an electrical repair on 11 i t . 12 B Y MR. COOPER: 13 Q . A n d did you bring this document, Mr. Smith's claim, 14 w i t h you here today? 15 A . Which tab was that again? 6? Was that tab 6? 16 Q . Ye s , sir. 17 A . I don't believe I did. 18 Q . I s this the first time you've seen this claim? 19 A . I remember seeing it, so I don't believe it is the 20 f i r s t time that I've seen it. 21 Q . W h o pulled the documents for you to review in 22 p r e p a r a t i o n for this deposition? 23 M R . FRANKLIN: Object to form or object 24 t o the question to the extent it calls for privileged 25 i n f o r m a t i o n .
21 Q . G o to the next page, sir, ending in 52, fourth
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
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1 B Y MR. COOPER: 2 Q . Yo u can answer. 3 A . S o what was the question? 4 Q . T h e question is, in preparation for this deposition, I 5 u n d e r s t a n d that you reviewed a number of claims, some 6 8 o f which you have here today, some of which you chose not to provide here today. W h o pulled all of the initial claims to
brake. Customer states when he steps on gas to accelerate, vehicle will sometimes stall as it begins to move. Customer states that the problem is that the vehicle has a hard time turning over and other vehicles are having to hit their brakes and sometimes almost hit him. Customer states he is not trying to be a pain, but is very frustrated that his brand new car is acting this way, and that the dealer response is always the same where they cannot find the problem and tell customer to drive vehicle around for a while to see what happens next. Customer states that he wants dealer to repurchase vehicle." Did I read that correctly? Yes Do you you know why GM never told Mr. Smith about the technical service bulletin involving this vehicle? MR. FRANKLIN: Object to form. THE WITNESS: Well, I don't. I don't see any mention in here about the key or key being an issue. BY MR. COOPER:
9 s t a r t with for you to review? 10 M R . FRANKLIN: Let me object, again, and 11 r e s t a t e what I stated at the beginning, that Mr. Hakim 12 h a s been presented to talk about the subjects as set 13 f o r t h in the objections to the amended notice and has 14 b r o u g h t with him the claims that fit that description. 15 B Y MR. COOPER: 16 Q . Yo u can answer the question. 17 A . T h e discovery coordinator at legal staff. 18 Q . W h o is that? 19 A . J a m i e Morrison. 20 Q . S o you had nothing to do with actually pulling the 21 c l a i m s ? 22 M R . FRANKLIN: Object to form. 23 T H E WITNESS: Well, I don't know what you 24 m e a n by "pulling the claims." 25 B Y MR. COOPER:
12 13 14 A . 15 Q . , 16 17 18
I 19 20 21
22 Q . S o the answer is you don't know why they didn't? 2 1 1. i o r r i c t . -2'4 M R . FRANKLIN: Object to form. 25 B Y MR. COOPER:
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1 Q . W e l l , you are being presented -2 A . S o you have to kind of explain what you mean by 3 " p u l l i n g the claims." 4 Q . S u r e . A t some point in time in the recent past, I 5 a s s u m e you were given notice that GM was going to put 6 y o u up as the corporate representative for this 7 d e p o s i t i o n ; correct? 8 A . Correct. 9 Q . 10 A . 11 Q . 12 13 M o f D i d you know anything about the case before that? Ye s . H o w did you know about the case? R . FRANKLIN: L e t me object to this line questioning. Y o u can answer. I know generally about the case because I work in the A n d when you were told you were going to be the 1 B Y MR. COOPER: 2 Q . 4 A . 5 Q . 7 A .
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W h a t other documents did you review, other than what I reviewed, in general, the claims that were produced. A n d when you say "in general, the claims that were F o r the scope vehicles, the vehicles that were in the
3 y o u ' v e brought with you here today?
6 p r o d u c e d , " did you f o r what vehicles? 8 s c o p e for this matter. 9 Q . A n d those were provided to you? 10 A . 11 Q . 12 A . 13 Q . 15 A . Ye s . W h e r e are those documents now? W e l l , they are electronic. S o you were provided them in electronic form and then Ye s .
14 B Y MR. COOPER: 15 Q . 16 A . 18 Q .
14 p r i n t e d out what you have with you here today? 16 Q . L e t ' s go to tab 7, please. Maryellen Biddle from 17 P e n n s y l v a n i a owned a 2005 Cobalt. S h e made a claim 18 t h a t was opened on May 19th, 2005. There were 19 20 9 4 5 t h e miles on the vehicle, and GM decided to repurchase Cobalt; correct?
17 d e p a r t m e n t where the case is worked. 19 c o r p o r a t e representative deposition, what did you 20 i n d e p e n d e n t l y do to gather documents that may y o u 21 22 m a y t h e need to review in order to prepare yourself for deposition?
21 A . C o r r e c t . 22 Q . 23 24 A . 25 Q . D A n d the agent notes again is stalling, stalls. o I do. A n d then on the initial description it says: you see that?
23 A .
I didn't do anything independently. Documents and
24 c l a i m s are pulled through legal staff, through search 25 c r i t e r i a . I was satisfied -- I did check the search
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1 c r i t e r i a , and I was satisfied it was a very thorough 2 s e a r c h , and those claims were provided to me to review 3 t h r o u g h legal staff. 4 Q . A n d what search criteria did you review? 5 A . T h e criteria that they used, which was very broad 6 s e a r c h terms to search for claims. 7 Q . A n d what was the criteria? 8 A . 9 I n general, they used the scope that was outlined in -- for this case. S o vehicle scope, the term 1 " C u s t o m e r calls. Customer states she just
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2 b o u g h t a new Cobalt for her daughter April 30th, 2005. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1.6 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 2.5 T h e a D vehicle has stalled out three times now. T h i s is safety issue." i d I read that correctly?
A. Y e s . Q. G o to tab 8, please. MR. FRANKLIN: L e t me state for the record, Lance, I know you are presenting the witness with these documents, and it's obviously fine to ask questions. I just want the witness to be able to be familiar with it before we move on to the next document, because he's not reading, necessarily, everything. Yo u are picking out certain aspects of these claims. S o I appreciate you letting the witness become familiar with the document before you move on to the next one. BY MR. COOPER: Q. T a b 8, please, sir. D o you have tab 8 in front of you? A. Ye a h . I was just finishing reading the document, and basically this is a repurchase. T h e y couldn't figure out why she was having the concerns, and they repurchased the vehicle. Q. P a g e 8, Eric Miller from the state of Washington ownec
t h e
10 " s t a l l , electrical, ignition, engine." S o very broad 11 t e r m s to generate as much as they could. 12 Q . A n d then someone from GM legal counsel then provided 13 14 y o u = I with the documents relating to these claims? M R . FRANKLIN: Let me object and instruct
F i l m t h e witness not to answer. I think this is calling 16 f o r privileged communications between the witness and 17 h i s attorneys. 18 B Y MR. COOPER: 19 Q . I ' m allowed to know what documents you reviewed in preparation for this deposition. MR. FRANKLIN: L e t me object. Lance, the
(-1N.
2
witness has already testified that he has generally
23 I ' v i e w e d all the documents, and that he has brought 24 t h o s e that meet the criteria set forth in the 25 o b j e c t i o n .
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1 a 2005 Cobalt. The GM claim open date is May 24th, 2 2 0 0 5 , the vehicle had 7,500 miles on it, and this 3 v e h i c l e was also repurchased; correct? 4 A . Correct. 5 Q . A n d it says here on the bottom of the first page: 6 " C u s t o m e r states that he's had multiple 7 a t t e m p t s on a repair with the vehicle stalling out, 8 b u t the dealership has had no success to date in 9 f i x i n g the concern. Have replaced the fuel pump and a 10 m o d u l e . Currently the vehicle is at the dealer and 11 h a s been for a few days, and he's in a loaner vehicle. 12 S e e k s repurchase of the vehicle, if possible." 13 D i d 14 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. Yes.
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you want about it. Q. Okay. Tab 9, sir. Raymond Arjona from New York owned
a 2005 Chevy Cobalt. The GM claim was opened on June 6th of 2005. The odometer had 4,000 miles on it. Do you see that? If you go down in the body of the document: "Customer states has had the vehicle stall in the middle of use four times. Customer states that she has had the vehicle taken to the vehicle dealer twice. Customer states after the first visit the customer was advised the concern had been corrected and to pick the vehicle up. Customer advised the same day of receiving the vehicle the problem occurred again. Customer states she took the vehicle back to the dealer and is now being told there is no fix for the concern. However, dealer advised of a bulletin advising that if there are an excessive amount of keys or if the driver knee hits the ignition, the vehicle can stall. Customer seeks a better type of resolution than to adjust her daughter's driving habits who is the driver of the vehicle. Customer states she will not pick the vehicle up until a better resolution is reached." Did I read that correctly?
15 Q . A n d then if you look at -- there is a red tab, or 16 t h e r e should be, toward the back of this. Well, let 17 m e see. 18 T h i s claim, GM actually attached the TSB 19 i n v o l v i n g the -20 A . I f you don't mind, can I just look at these other -21 j u s t glance at these other pages until we get there?
22 Q . Sure.
23 A . Thank you. 24 O k a y . I'm to your tab now. 25 Q . A n d the tab is the technical service bulletin for the
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1 2 3
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1 A . Ye s . 2 Q . D i d you bring Mr. Arjona's claim documents with you
engine stalling as a result of the key moving in the ignition? MR. FRANKLIN: Is this page 18198? MR. COOPER: Correct. MR. FRANKLIN: Thanks. BY MR. COOPER: Q. Do you see that? A. Yes. Q. And it's dated February 28th, 2005? A. Yes. Q. Did you bring Mr. Miller's claim with you here today sir?
4
5 6 7
3 h e r e today? 4 A . I don't think so. Let me just check. No. 5 Q . Ta b 10, sir. Audrey Naguina from Davenport, Iowa
6 o w n e d a 2005 Chevy Cobalt. The GM claim open date is 7 J u n e 9th of 2005. In the agent note is stalls; 8 correct? 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 A. Ye s . Q. T a b 11, please. MR. FRANKLIN: Same objection I had before. I'd like the witness to be able to review it before moving on to the next document. THE WITNESS: Okay. BY MR. COOPER: Q. According to this document, Ms. Naguina was never made A. Correct. Q. A n d the body of the document: "Numerous concerns. Customer states has taken in numerous times. Died again yesterday. Dealer states concern cannot be duplicated. States almost had an accident while trying to start vehicle again. States brand new car should not have so many concerns. I s getting frustrated with vehicle." Did I read that correctly?
a
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
A. I don't believe so. Q. S o you are not prepared to testify about this claim, other than what you've read here today? MR. FRANKLIN: Object to form. THE WITNESS: No, I don't agree with your statement. BY MR. COOPER:
111 Yo u are prepared to testify? 1 w A . O f course. What did you cinklith Mr. Millers claim to review it
b e f o r e today?2 4 A. Well, you know, I can't recall if I reviewed it or 24 25 n o t . I believe I may have, but ask me any questions
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1 a w a r e of the technical service bulletin, was she? 2 3 M T R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: I t does not I can't say 1 2 f o r A n no reason at no specific time." d the last paragraph:
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3 " C u s t o m e r states at various intervals the 4 v e h i c l e dies for no reason. When the engine stops 5 r u n n i n g , no lights will come on. T h e steering locks 6 a n d it's hard to brake. S h e took vehicle to the 7 d e a l e r in May, and the vehicle has done this twice 8 s i n c e then. There is no specific time or place the 9 v e h i c l e does this. T h e purpose for trading her old 10 12 c a r D i Ye s . I f you would go to tab 13, please. R H . E good. FRANKLIN: Have you had a chance to WITNESS: I'm getting there. Okay. was to have a dependable vehicle to take her d I read that correctly? 11 m o t h e r to the doctor." 13 A . 14 Q . 15 17 18 M T I ' m
4 t h a t for a fact, but it doesn't state that in the 5 document. 6 B Y MR. COOPER: 7 Q . T a b 11, please. Nathaniel Long from Cleveland, Ohio
8 o w n e d a 2005 Chevy Cobalt. T h e GM claim open date is 9 J u n e 10th of 2005, the odometer was 4,943 miles, and 10 t h e agent notes is stalls; correct? 11 A . C o r r e c t . 12 Q . A n d the body of the document:
13 " C u s t o m e r states just purchased a vehicle 14 l e s s than 90 days. '05 Chevy Cobalt. N o w has 15 c o n c e r n , happened two times, and hit a bump in the 16 s t r e e t , and the whole car cut off. C a r shut off 17 y e s t e r d a y when coming down a hill and engine shut off 18 a n d could not turn. C a r is being serviced this 19 m o r n i n g . N o t happy with vehicle now. Vehicle is at 20 L a k e s h o r e Chevrolet. H a s told service about the 21 c o n c e r n . Customer states she is not getting back in 22 t h a t car." 23 D i Ye s . A n d according to this document, Nathaniel Long was d I read that correctly? 24 A . 25 Q .
16 f i n i s h reviewing it?
19 B Y MR. COOPER: 20 Q . T a b 13, sir. Christopher Whitt from McCarr, Kentucky
21 o w n e d a 2005 Chevy Cobalt. T h e GM claim open date is 22 J u n e 27, 2005, the odometer 8,481 miles, and the 23 v e h i c l e -- the agent note is stalls. 24 25 A . D o Ye s . you see that?
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1 n e v e r made aware of the technical service bulletin; is 2 t h a t right? 3 4 M T R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: It sounds like maybe they 1 Q . A n d if you go to the next page ending in 75, the
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2 h i g h l i g h t e d section: 3 " C u s t o m e r states approximately 3,000 miles 4
5 6 7 8 9 11 12 13
o n
o n a n y t h e i n t h e A n
vehicle. Calling to see if there is anything out

issue she is having with her vehicle, 2005 Cobalt, reports of vehicle stalling. C a n be driving down street and the vehicle just dies. N o consistence speed. H a s called the dealer and they have asked customer to bring in the vehicle on Saturday to d you go down further: states that her Chevy Cobalt went
5 w e r e on page 18267 at the top. The bulletin is 6 m e n t i o n e d there. 7 B Y MR. COOPER: 8 Q . O k a y. S o they actually were made aware of the 9 b u l l e t i n . "Nothing out for bulletin except heavy key 10 c h a i n and customer states does not have one." 11 I s that what it says? 12 A . Ye s . 13 Q . O k a y. Let's go to tab 12. ,-14 A . I f you don't mind, I just want to finish -15 Q . S u r e . r16 A . t a k i n g a look at this one. Okay. Q. T a b 12, please. Elsie Garrison from Guntersville, 18 19 Alabama owned a 2005 Chevy Cobalt. The GM claim open date is 6-27-2005, the vehicle had 2,500 miles on it, and again the agent note was stalls; is that right? A. Correct. Q. A n d if you look in the body of the document, the 23 I ighlighted s e a t : " C R M statal.-- that's the GM employee
10 d i a g n o s e . " " C u s t o m e r i n t o
the shop on July 9th, '05 for the vehicle just
14 t u r n i n g off on her. Customer states at the time the 15 d e a l e r told her they let the vehicle run for one hour 16 a n d then drove it for 13 miles, and the car did not 17 d u p l i c a t e the concern. Customer states that she feels 18 19 i D t is a safety issue." i Ye s . T h e n if you go to the next page, there is a discussior W h i c h page are we on? This one? E n d i n g in 76, yes, right here. I t says: G e t diagnosis from dealer. Dealer did not d I read that correctly?
20 A . 21 Q . 23 A . 24 Q . 25 "
22 a b o u t the diagnosis, ending in 76.
25 s t a t e s -- "the customer claims that her vehicle stalls
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1 d u p l i c a t e the problems. There is a TSB for these 2 s y m p t o m s . Have ordered the parts and will be in at 3 t h e end of the week." 4 D i d 5 A . Ye s . 7 s a y s : 8 " H a v i n g issue again. Customer states the 9 d a y before yesterday the car died again. Key ring 10 d i d n ' t resolve the issue. Was almost in car accident. 11 C a r behind her almost hit her." 12 D i d 13 A . Ye s , I read that correctly? I read that correctly?
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1 b a s i c a l l y reviewed it and either confirmed or didn't 2 c o n f i r m what I said about it. 3 M R . FRANKLIN: Object to form. The 4 w i t n e s s , Lance, is not required to bring documents. 5 I t ' s just that we did bring those that met the 6 c r i t e r i a . But you can ask the witness about any of 7 t h e documents that you've brought. 8 T H E WITNESS: Yeah. 9 B Y MR. COOPER: 10 Q . Yo u can answer the question. 11 A . S o , in essence, I brought documents that were part of 12 t h i s notice. Right? I did not bring all these other 13 d o c u m e n t s , but they have been produced, and you hays 14 t h e m , and you can certainly ask me questions about 15 t h e m . 16 T h e s e documents again, I think almost 17 a l l of the documents that we've talked about here did 18 n o t involve any loss of control. 19 Q . Okay. Do you want to finish with your review? 20 A . Sure. Thank you. 21 O k a y . I'm good with that one. 22 Q . S o go to tab 14, please. A Glen Wilt claim. He's 23 f r o m Garrettsville, Ohio. He owns a 2005 Chevy 24 C o b a l t . The claim open date, June 27, 2005. Vehicle 25 h a s 12,000 miles on it. Again, the agent notes is
6 Q . T h e n you go to the next page, sir, top of page 78, it
14 Q . G o to tab 14, please, sir. 15 M R . FRANKLIN: Again, I would ask the 16 w i t n e s s be allowed to read the portions of the 17 d o c u m e n t that were not inquired about. 18 B Y MR. COOPER: 19 Q . A n d I won't ask this every time, sir, but we are going 20 21 t o a s mark all the documents you brought with you today an exhibit, and obviously we can assume that,
22 a l t h o u g h you may have reviewed the claims, that you -23 b e f o r e today, you came here prepared to testify only 24 a b o u t the claims that are set forth in the documents 25 y o u brought with you today; correct?
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1 2 3 4 5 6 M T R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: Well, the claims that were
1 s t a l l s ; is that correct?
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2 A . Correct. 3 Q . A n d if you go to the top of the next page, it says:
4 " F r i d a y customers wife was in the vehicle
b r o u g h t here meet the criteria that was described by M r . Franklin where we had an allegation of stalling a n d loss of control, and I think almost all the claims t h a t we've reviewed -- I'm not sure all of them --
5 6
o n the way home when the vehicle stalled in the middle o f the intersection. Customer feels that she was I read that correctly?
7 t h a t you have in your book did not result in loss of 8 control. 9 B Y MR. COOPER: 10 Q . A n d you did not come prepared to testify about those, 11 a l t h o u g h obviously, as we sit here today and talk 12 a b o u t them, you can talk about what is in the 13 d o c u m e n t s that are before you today; correct? 14 M M R . FRANKLIN: Object to form. THE WITNESS: Again, I'm not sure what you
7 n e a r l y hit in the intersection." 8 D i d 9 A . Yes.
10 Q . G o to tab 15, please. 11 A . Okay. So if you don't mind me just kind of glance 12 t h r o u g h the rest of this. 13 S o this one, again, did not involve loss of 14 c o n t r o l . Okay.
15 Q . W h a t do you know about the Helen Nute case, Helen Nute 16 c l a i m ? 17 A . S o you'll have to help me with the number.
16 m e a n by "prepared to." I mean what we said was that 17 wg o e. would testify on the documents that are in that 18 a m e n d e d notice, and that is what I brought. Right? 19 S o "prepared" is kind of an ambiguous word. 20 B Y MR. COOPER: s . We k lyou, for example, is about a claim and document ( 12, Q l , no, "prepared" not -"prepared" means, if in I a i l j l e r e l h i c h youVimeln't bring with you today, you would 24 n o t be prepared to testify about it, unless I 25 p r e s e n t e d you with my own document today and you jus
18 Q . W e l l , see if it's in your documents there, sir. 19 A . A r e you going to give me a Bates number, or do you 20 w a n t me to look through names? 21 Q . S u r e , look through names.
22 A . S o spell the name for me, please.

23 Q . H e l e n N-u-t-e. Actually, the Bates number, I've got 24 i t . 18335.
25 A .
I don't think I have that one in here. 18335?
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1 Q . 2 M Ye s . R . FRANKLIN: While he looks at that,
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1 b r o u g h t , Lance. I would ask that you provide y o u 2 j u s t tell the witness which tab to turn to, and you 3 c a n ask questions, as opposed to a memory contest. 4 B Y MR. COOPER: 5 Q . I t ' s not a memory contest. I ' m asking what you have
3 L a n c e , I want to confirm, 14 was the Glen Wilt case, 4 B a t e s number 18285; is that right? 5 6 7 8 9 10 M M 1 M M T 5 R R R R H . . . . E COOPER: Correct. FRANKLIN: Okay. A n d we've not gone to COOPER: Correct. FRANKLIN: Okay. Thanks. WITNESS: A l l right. S o unless I've
6 d o n e to prepare yourself to testify about that claim. 7 A . W e l l , again, I don't have those claims in front of me. 8 I need to look at the document. A n d if I can't answer 9 y o u r questions, so be it. B u t I believe I can answer 10 y o u r questions, so show me the document. 11 Q . 13 14 M T H o w many claims have there been involving -- engine R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: I don't know the answer to 12 s t a l l i n g involving 2005 and 2006 Cobalts?
yet?
11 m i s o r d e r e d these, I don't have that one in here. 12 B Y MR. COOPER: 13 Q . 15 A . 16 I S o do you know anything about it? A r e you prepared to W e l l , I can't remember about it. I f I can look at it, may be able to answer your questions. T h e question is, are you prepared today to testify I f you show me the claim, I can answer your question. can't answer a question that way. I ' m prepared to of control as defined in our objection, and if let me look at the claim, we can see if I can
14 t e s t i f y about it?
15 t h a t . 16 B Y MR. COOPER: 17 Q . 19 A . 20 Q . 21 a t H o w many warranty claims have there been involving I don't know the answer to that. A r e you prepared to testify about the warranty claims all?
17 Q . 19 A . 20 22 23 I
18 a b o u t that claim?
18 e n g i n e stalling in 2005 and 2006 Cobalts?
21 t e s t i f y about claims. I brought claims that involved l o s s y o u
22 A . 23 24 t
W e l l , again, in our amended notice, we were prepared o talk about these claims that involve stalling, but warranty data was produced. I f you show me the
24 a n s w e r questions about it for you. 25 Q . W h a t do you know about the Nathan Hill claim?
t h e
25 w a r r a n t y data, I may be able to answer your questions,
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1 2 3 M o o f f R . FRANKLIN: L e t me object to this line 1 o f course. questioning. W e have produced almost 32,000 pages claims, lawsuits, et cetera, from numerous 2 Q . W h a t warranty data have you reviewed, sir? 3 A . Actually, I don't believe I reviewed the warranty 4 d a t a . 5 Q . 6 7 8 9 11 t M T o S o if you haven't reviewed the warranty data, you are prepared to testify about the warranty data? Fair say? R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: No. I f you show me the
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4 d a t a b a s e s from the searches that Mr. Hakim has already 5 d e s c r i b e d . I think it is fundamentally unfair to just 6 t h r o w out the name of a claimant that might fall among 7 t h o s e 32,000 pages and expect the witness to have 8 i n s t a n t recall of. that particular claim. 9 11 13 I t h a t n o t f counsel has a question about a document that GM produced, and the witness can he recalls reviewing that claim. B u t giving out a 10 p a r t i c u l a r claim, he should present the witness with 12 c e r t a i n l y answer questions and advise as to whether or 14 n a m e among 32,000 pages, I think, is completely unreasonable. 16 B Y MR. COOPER: 17 Q . 18 A . Y o u can answer the question. I need the Bates number to answer the question.
n o t
10 w a r r a n t y data, I may be able to answer your questions, b u t I don't know that that fits the dep notice in 12 t e r m s of claims, in terms of these types of claims. 13 B Y MR. COOPER: 14 Q . Y o u don't know whether our amended notice incorporated 15 17 18 20 22 23 t h e a n d t a M T o n warranty claims? the objections and what we were going to testify did not include the warranty data. accident and an airbag has not deployed in a R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: I don't know the answer to 16 A . I w e have this notice, and we have our objections,
19 Q . S u r e . 18338. 20 A . S o I have 18 -- I don't have that one. S o if it's in
19 Q . H o w many claims have there been where there has been 21 C o b a l t ?
C1 2 Q o .n W eh a of t your do you tabs, knowlebout I can answer the Raymond questions Gilbert about it. claim, 23 3 4 5 4 ? to I 24 M R . 25 I t I %mot FRANKLIN: I'm going to object again.
24 t h a t question. 25 B Y MR. COOPER:
appears that these are in the notebook that you
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1 Q . H a v e you done anything to prepare yourself to testify 2 a b o u t those incidents or claims? 3 M R . FRANKLIN: Let me object to the form of 1 c a n ' t tell you that. 2 Q . 3 A . 4 Q . 5 T a b 16.
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I would like to read the pages in between. O k a y. T a b 16. Helen Nute from Plainfield, Vermont owned ar Cobalt. T h e GM claim open date is July 18th,
4 t h i s line of questioning for the same reasons that 5 I ' v e stated before. T h e witness is here. T h e witness 6 h a s reviewed the numerous claims, lawsuits, et cetera,
' 0 5
6 2 0 0 5 . Odometer is 3,853 miles. 7 8 A . 9 Q . 10 D o Ye s . A n d the middle of the body of the paragraph as far as customer issues, it says: you see that?
7 f r o m the numerous databases that have been provided in 8 t h i s case, and is here to talk about those. Again, I 9 w o u l d object to this line of questioning. 10 11 I I f counsel has a question for the witness, would ask that the documents that counsel has
t h e
11 " P u r c h a s e new Cobalt from Cody Chevrolet on 12 J u l y " e x c u s e me "June 17th, '05, and all repairs 13 h a v e been completed. Vehicle has experienced severs 14 f a i l u r e s , to include unduplicated engineering" -15 " e n g i n e stalling concerns." 16 D i Ye s . G o to tab.17, please. O k a y. So, again, no loss of control there. Ta b 17? S u r e . Nathan Hill from Corpus Christi, Texas owned a d I read that correctly?
12 b r o u g h t , that he present the witness with them and 13 a l l o w the witness to testify. 14 16 M R . COOPER: C a n you reread my question, read back as requested.)
15 p l e a s e ? ( R e c o r d 17 B Y MR. COOPER: 13 Q . I n v o l v i n g airbag non-deployments in '05 and '06 19 C o b a l t & 20 A . N o , I looked at claims that involve stalling.
17 A . 18 Q . 19 A . 20 Q . 21 23
21 Q . L e t ' s go to tab 15. Lisa Funk from Levittown, 22 P e n n s y l v a n i a owned an '05 Cobalt. T h e GM claim date 23 i s opened July 7th of 2005, the vehicle had 24 2 , 3 2 0 miles on it, and the agent note again is stalls; 25 c o r r e c t ?
2 0 0 5 Cobalt. T h e GM claim open date, July 21, 2005. D i Ye s . A n d the body of the paragraph or document says: d I read that correctly?
22 O d o m e t e r , 3,200 miles. 24 A . 25 Q .
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1 A . Correct. 2 Q . 3 A n d the body of the document: states speaking with customer's 1 " C o m p l a i n t vehicle." I t says "Allen Hill, 2 c u s t o m e r states vehicle has about 2,100 miles. 3 C u s t o m e r states is calling in for his son Nathan.
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" C u s t o m e r
4 m o t h e r , Rhonda. Daughter purchased a 2005 Chevy 5 C o b a l t . Replaced a whole new gas tank. Customer 6 s t a t e s her daughter has had it stall three times. 7 S t a t e s her daughter does not feel safe." 8 D i Ye s . A n d then if you go to the next red tab there. R R . page? . COOPER: 18330. FRANKLIN: W h a t is the Bates number on d I read that correctly?. 9 A . 10 Q . 11 12 13 M M
4 C u s t o m e r states that he was told by dealer to contact 5 6 C A C W h to start file." a t is CAC?
7 A . C u s t o m e r assistance center. 8 Q . " C u s t o m e r states that his son purchased a new Cobalt 9 11 a n d f o r vehicle has been in the shop five times. Customer one and a half weeks. Customer states that the 10 s t a t e s that vehicle has been with the dealer this time
t h a t
12 v e h i c l e just dies. Customer states that all lights 13 14 c o m e on in dash, shakes at times, and can't drive over 3 D 0 i Ye s . G o to tab 18. Ye a h , if you don't mind, I just want to take a look at few of the pages here. o it looks like they did a repurchase on S miles per hour." d I read that correctly?
MR F R A NKLIN: T h a n k you. BY MR. P I C O O P E R : 16 Q . T h e r e is a "Dissatisfied Closed Business Reason"
15
16 A . 17 Q .
17
18 19
section. I t says: " C u s t o m e r seeks repurchase due to intermittent stall issue. Dealer unable to diagnose or duplicate. AV M advised no repurchase."
18 A . 19 20 21 22 Q . 23 A . a
11 N . 112 24 A .
D o f
you know why GM would have repurchased the other Ilehicles because they were stalling
t h i s one. Okay. Next tab? 1 8 . D o you have that? Ye s .
and r t this vehicle? I do not. I mean each case would be independent,
24 Q . R a y m o n d Gilbert from Detroit, Michigan owned a 2005 25 C o b a l t . T h e GM open claim date, August 10th of 2005,
25 r i g h t , have its own individual facts about it. S o I
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1 t h e odometer had 14,900 miles, and the agent note, it 2 s a y s stalls; correct? 3 A . Correct. 4 Q . A n d the body of the document: 5 " C u s t o m e r complains about vehicle. 6 C u s t o m e r states bought vehicle new. Several times r1Chm 7 t h e engine has cut off on the highway. The last time 8 i t happened, the customer hit a bump in the road, and 9 t h e entire vehicle turned off. Customer wasn't able 10 t o turn the vehicle on while in neutral. Had to pull 11 o f f the road and restart the vehicle. This doesn't 12 h a p p e n all the time. Dealer states that they weren't 13 a b l e to duplicate the problem. Dealer advised mixing 14 g a s o l i n e because maybe it was the gasoline. Dealer 15 r o a d test for 19 miles and found nothing." 16 D i d 17 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
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1 a c c i d e n t . Customer states they have tried the new 2 C o l o r a d o with the weight of the keys, and it didn't 3 t u r n off. Customer seeks repurchase of their vehicle. 4 C R M advised that the weight of the keys will make the 5 v e h i c l e turn off." 6 A n d 7 A . Ye s . 8 0 . CRM? 9 A . Ye s . 10 Q . T h e GM employee "advised will give this info to Kevin 11 A n d r e w s , as he is still researching the issue, and 12 w i l l contact them on August 30th." 13 D i d 14 A . Ye s . I read that correctly? that's the GM employee; correct?
15 Q . G o to tab 19, please, sir. 16 A . I ' m just cleaning up the rest of this document, if you 17 d o n ' t mind. 18 Q . Sure. 19 A . I think there is some description on Bates 20 n u m b e r 18459 where there is some aftermarket alarm 21 i n t e r f a c i n g with the ignition and some thoughts of 22 t h a t being the issue on the vehicle. 23 24 W h e r e a do you want me to go now? 1 9 , please. The owner is Evelyn Ledoux, Plainfield,
18 Q . I f you go to the next page. 19 M R . FRANKLIN: Next tab or next page? 20 B Y MR. COOPER: 21 Q . N e x t page, 18445, third paragraph from the bottom. 22 " C u s t o m e r concerned about safety of family 23 w i t h current vehicle. Customer states feels unsafe in 24 v e h i c l e because the vehicle has cut out at least five 25 t i m e s before and dealer wasn't able to duplicate the
25 C o n n e c t i c u t , a 2005 Cobalt. A GM open claim date,
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1 p r o b l e m . Customer states dealership is a good dealer, 2 a n d they have done everything to help customer out, 3 b u t no diagnostic has been given." 4 D i d I read that correctly? 5 A . Ye s . 6 Q . A n d if you go to the next page ending in 456, the 7 f i r s t full paragraph: 8 " C u s t o m e r states that this issue is big 9 s a f e t y concern and does not want wife driving vehicle 10 a n y m o r e . Engine died again this morning when he was 11 d r i v i n g on freeway through construction zone at about 60 miles per hour after hitting bump in the road. 13 P r e v i o u s CRM advised that customer could go to another 14 d e a l e r for second opinion, but if no concern was found, customer would be charged diagnosis fee." 16 I l i D i d I read that correctly? 17 A . Ye s., 18 Q . I f you go to the next page, sir. To the right there, 19 t h e bottom right-hand side ending in 458: 20 " C u s t o m e r called. Customer states that wife doesn't feel safe in vehicle because vehicle opped inside the service bay at dealership with the keight of the keys. Customer states that wife is 24 s c a r e d in that the vehicle would turn off when the 25 v e h i c l e is on the freeway and be caught in an 1 A u g u s t 11, 2005. The odometer, a little over
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2 1 2 , 0 0 0 miles, and the agent notes is stalls; correct? 3 A . Correct. 4 Q . A n d the body of the document: 5 " V e h i c l e customer states refusing to 6 r e p l a c e the ignition switch and president of the 7 c o m p a n y told them to do it. I have been in near 8 a c c i d e n t because of the car shutting off while I was 9 d r i v i n g down the streets -- street." Excuse me. "8o 10 m a n y problems with this vehicle, I just don't feel 11 s a f e in it." 12 A n d then there is another note at the 13 b o t t o m . "Concern," question mark, "unsafe vehicle, 14 e n g i n e shuts off while driving." 15 D i d 16 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
17 Q . G o to tab 20. 18 A . Okay. So just let me clear the rest of the pages. 19 S o this is -- it looks like there was an 20 a c c i d e n t , and the allegation had to do with brakes. 21 O k a y .
Ye s .
Next tab you said?
22 Q . 2 0 . Do you have that?

23 A .
24 Q . Marcos Cruz from Three Rivers, Texas owned a 2005 25 C o b a l t . The GM open claim date is August 15th, '05.
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Ye s . Q. T a b 21, please. A. O k a y. I'm there. Q. H o w a r d Gelman from Monroeville, Pennsylvania owned a 2005 Cobalt. The GM claim date opened August 22, 2005. The vehicle had 23,000 miles on it; correct? A. Ye s . Q. A n d the body of the paragraph: "Customer seeks repurchase. Electrical concern. Customer states dealer cannot find anything wrong with it. Has been in at least three times for vehicle cutting off. Customer states wants to start the lemon law process. Does not feel safe in vehicle. The vehicle had a little over 23,000 miles on it, and again the agent note is stalls; correct? A. Correct. Q. A n d the body of the document: "Jennifer Cruz, customer states that vehicle shut off on the interstate. Concern for safety for children. Customer seeks for vehicle to be replaced. Acknowledges that she was provided with extended service contract, plus one month car payment. Customer seeks for vehicle to be replaced. Does not feel safe in vehicle." Did I read that correctly?
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1 s h o u l d get the vehicle in as soon as possible." 2 D i Ye s . G o to tab 23, please. d I read that correctly? 3 A . 4 Q .
5 A . O k a y. 6 Q . G r a n t Smith from Cincinnati, Ohio owned an '05 Cobalt 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 T h e h a d GM open date is September 2, 2005. T h e vehicle 9,600 miles on it, and this vehicle was actually
repurchased by GM? A. C o r r e c t . Q. A n d in the description, in the "Work History," there is a note: "Still losing engine power, feels unsafe, and doesn't want to travel in it. Customer doesn't want the car and have loan revoked." And then it says at the bottom there, "What conditions does concern occur?" The answer is, "While driving and leaving stoplight, lost engine power." Did I read that correctly?
A. Yes. Q. Go to tab 24, please. A. On Bates o n that one, 18639, there is some
discussion about a bad battery and a bad battery cell which may have caused the car to stall. Where did you want me to go next?
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1 C u s t o m e r states there are no warning, no light, 2 v e h i c l e just shuts off. Customer just picked up 3 v e h i c l e from dealer today for same concern. Today 4 t h e y gave him a paper about stalling and a problem 5 w i t h the electrical system, ID number 1683813, but 6 c u s t o m e r does not see how it pertains to him. 7 C u s t o m e r seeks to make sure that it is documented 8 t h a t , when he initially called to request it, the 9 m i l e a g e was 11,703 miles." 10 D i Ye s . G o to tab 22, please. 2 2 . Margaret Hamm from Lowell, Indiana owned a 2005 Chevy Cobalt. T h e GM claim open date, August 25, '05. /111116 V e h i c l e had 6,000 miles on it, and the agent again ' 1 7 n o t e d stalls; correct? 18 A . Y e s . 19 Q . A n d then the body of the document: "Customer states that she was driving down the highway and her knee hit under the steering wheel d I read that correctly? 11 A . 12 Q . 14 Q . 1 Q . T a b 24, please. Arthur Ledoux from Plainfield, 2 C o n n e c t i c u t owned an '05 Cobalt. The GM open claim 3 d a t e or claim open date, September 10, 2005. The 4 v e h i c l e had 13,502 miles on it, and GM repurchased 5 t h i s vehicle; is that right? 6 A . Ye s . 7 Q . A n d the body of the document: 8 " C u s t o m e r states that he was going up on 9 r a m p and the key light (brake light) was bright red. 10 C u s t o m e r states he has taken the vehicle to the dealer 11 12 13 14 f o r t h e o f f I the issue in the past and that he is not taking vehicle to a GM dealer again unless he is dropping the vehicle." s that right?
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13 A . O k a y. Where am I going? 22?
15 A . Ye s . 16 Q . A n d again, the agent notes there is stalls? 17 A . Ye s . 18 Q . A n d if you go to the blue tab, right here is one of 19 t h e s e GM documents, "Case Assessment by Rodney Cross." 20 21 22 23 D M M M o R R R you know Mr. Cross? . . . FRANKLIN: What is the Bates number? COOPER: 18741. FRANKLIN: Thanks.
r a ni d l A the n engine d the dies." g o a few lines down, "CRM 4 a d v i s e d " -- t a t ' s e M employee again, the CRM -25 " a d v i s e d since this is a safety issue to customer, she
24 B Y MR. COOPER: 25 Q . D o you know Mr. Cross?
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1 A . I do not. What is AVM? 2 Q . I t says "Vehicle Repair History." August 5th, '05, 3 m i l e a g e 6,577, "Could not duplicate stall concern." 4 A n d then August 12th, '05, the vehicle has 6,665 miles 5 6 o n o n it, "Replaced ignition switch housing." And then September 15th, '05, it says "Customer states
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2 A . A r e a vehicle manager. 3 Q . I f you go to the next page, 773: 4 " C u s t o m e r states the dealership told her 5 s h e shouldn't sit too close to the steering wheel to 6 a v o i d accidentally turning off the vehicle. Customer 7 b e l i e v e s she was sold something that is defective. 8 C u s t o m e r would like vehicle fixed or a new vehicle 9 w i t h o u t the concern and replace it." 10 A t the bottom of the page it says: 11 " D e a l e r states when the car was checked no 12 p r o b l e m could be found or duplicated. The ignition 13 c y l i n d e r is a low-effort cylinder. The part can't be 14 r e p l a c e d or repaired. I t is a design problem that 15 c a n ' t be resolved with the current parts." 16 D i d 17 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
7 v e h i c l e shuts off when driving. And then October 18, 8 ' 0 5 , "Could not duplicate engine stalling concern. 9 A n d then January 31st, '06 "Installed key support 10 c o v e r . " 11 D i d 12 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
13 Q . W h a t is a key support cover? 14 A . I believe that's the cover that changes the key from a 15 s l o t to a hole. It's an insert. 16 Q . A n d then tab 25, please, sir. Are you there? 17 A . Ye s . 18 Q . Antoinett Vamos from North Versailles, Pennsylvania. 19 S h e owned an '05 Cobalt. Open claim date, 20 S e p t e m b e r 12th, '05. The vehicle had a little over 21 6 , 5 0 0 miles on it, and the agent note again is stalls. 22 A . Okay. I'm sorry, I just need to re-adjust a little 23 b i t . All right. That was tab 25, you said? 24 Q . Ye s . Do you have that in front of you now? 25 A . Ye s .
18 Q . W h a t does "low-effort cylinder" mean? 19 A . W e l l , I'm assuming what they mean is that the torque 20 t o turn the cylinder requires -- doesn't require high 21 e f f o r t . 22 Q . T h e next page, 1774, this paragraph says: 23 " C u s t o m e r states the vehicle turns off 24 i n t e r m i t t e n t l y if the customer accidentally bumps the 25 s t e e r i n g column or the keys."
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1 Q . I ' l l read it again. Antoinett Vamos from North 2 V e r s a i l l e s , Pennsylvania, an '05 Chevy Cobalt. GM 3 c l a i m open date, 9-12-2005. The vehicle had over 4 5 , 6 0 0 miles on it, and the agent notes is stalls; is 5 t h a t right? 6 A . Ye s . 7 Q . A n d it says here in the body of the document: 8 " C u s t o m e r states vehicle has shut off on 9 h e r three times. Customer states when her knee hits 10 s o m e t h i n g under the steering column, vehicle will shut 11 o f f . Vehicle doesn't do it all the time. Customer 12 s t a t e s she is going to bring it in to dealer for this 13 c o n c e r n . Also her head lamps will fog up." 14 15 ! 16 I 17 18 w p m Did I read that correctly? A . yres. Q . I f you go to -- two pages back to Bates 773 -a c t u a l l y , go to 772 on the left there. Do you see ; t a t ? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
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Do you see that? A. I ' m sorry, you said 1774? Q. Right there. A. Okay. Q. And I'll reread that first sentence. "Customer states the vehicle turns off intermittently if the customer accidently bumps the steering column or the keys. Service manager states when the car was checked no problem could be found o duplicated. Diagnosis - concern unable to duplicate. Per TSB, key may be turning when hit with knee." And that's -- TSB is technical service A. Q. bulletin; is that right? Yes. "The ignition cylinder is a low-effort cylinder. The part can't be replaced or repaired. It is a design problem that can't be resolved with the current parts. Customer feels unsafe in the vehicle knowing it could turn off the vehicle while driving, like when pulling out into traffic. Customer would like to have the concern resolved or be put in a different vehicle without any concern. Please let me know what we can do for the customer's vehicle to operate like any other vehicle or if repurchase is an option." And then if you go to the top of the next
119 A . Ye s . i b Q . "CRM" -- this is the GM employee -- "advised custome states vehicle is turning off when she hits the 21. s t e e r i n g column or dash with her knee. She has been 23 t o l d there is an s u e but there is no fix. CRM seeks ally2r) tt kn5w if lif;re M i d be a fix or if the AVM 25 s h o u l d . "
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1 p a g e , 775, it says "PAAVM states." What is a PAAVM? 2 Pennsylvania? 3 A . M u s t be. 4 Q . AV M . And what is AVM again? 5 A . A r e a vehicle manager. 6 Q . I s that a GM employee? 7 A . Ye s . 8 Q . T h e GM employee states: 9 " T h i s is a known vehicle concern at this 10 t i m e . Has no suggested fix. The vehicle has a 11 l o w - e f f o r t key cylinder as a normal function of the 12 v e h i c l e . All he can suggest at this time is to be 13 p a t i e n t in waiting for a possible solution, while 14 b e i n g careful not to bump the ignition cylinder. GM 15 i s working on the solution, but no buyback or I read that correctly? 16 r e p u r c h a s e will be considered." 17 D i d 18 A . Ye s . 1 Q . G o to tab 27, please.
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2 A . Okay. So just give me a moment. 3 O k a y . I'm good. Tab 27, you said? 4 Q . Ye s , sir. Andres Filippidies, College Point, New York 5 o w n e d an '05 Cobalt. Open claim date, September 15th, 6 ' 0 5 , the vehicle had 2,000 miles on it, and the agent 7 n o t e s is stalls; correct? 8 A . Correct. 9 Q . A n d the body of the document: 10 " P u r c h a s e d new o r "Customer states 11 p u r c h a s e d new. It wouldn't start for me twice. Had 12 i t towed to Bay Chevrolet by roadside both times, and 13 t h e y said they had fixed it both times and they 14 d i d n ' t . Yesterday the vehicle died going 60 miles an 15 h o u r on the highway. Put in into neutral, rolled it 16 t o the side of the road, and it started up. Went to 17 t h e sales department at the selling dealership, and 18 t h e y said they can't do anything about it. Almost 19 k i l l e d their family. Does not want the car. It's 20 d e f e c t i v e . " 21 D i d 22 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
19 Q . A n d then if you go down the page, it says "CRM 20 a d v i s e s , " or the GM employee advises: 21 " I got a response from back from the AVM. 22 T h e AVM states this is a known vehicle concern that at 23 t h i s time has no suggested fix. The vehicle has a 24 l o w - e f f o r t key cylinder as a normal function of the 25 v e h i c l e . All he can suggest at this time is to be
23 Q . G o to tab 28, please. 24 A . Okay. Next tab you said? 25 Q . 2 8 .
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1 p a t i e n t in waiting for a possible solution, while 2 b e i n g careful not to bump the ignition cylinder. GM 3 i s working on the solution, but no buyback/repurchase 4 w i l l be considered." 5 6 A t o n d it says "Customer states she will have pursue an answer via other means then, such as ar I read that correctly? 1 A . 28.
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2 Q . J o h n Papa, Levittown, New York owned an '05 Cobalt. 3 T h e GM open claim date, September 23, '05. The 4 v e h i c l e had 700 miles on it, and GM actually 5 r e p u r c h a s e d this vehicle; is that correct? 6 A . Correct. 7 Q . A n d the body of the document: 8 " V e h i c l e customer states Cobalt has been in 9 t h r e e times. Shuts off. They have it right now. A 10 w e e k after purchase she was driving home about 11 3 5 miles per hour. Once it sits and she waits five 12 m i n u t e s , it starts up again. The SVM has driven the 13 v e h i c l e home and was unable to duplicate the concern. 14 A l m o s t was rear-ended." 15 D i d 16 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
7 a t t o r n e y. " 8 D i d 9 A . Ye s .
10 Q . Ta b -- well, let me ask you this: The Vamos claim 11 h e r e , did you bring that with you today as part of the 12 d o c u m e n t s ? 13 A . N o , this claim didn't involve a loss of control. 14 Q . Ta b 26 then, please. Bonnie Robustelli, Millington, New Jersey owned an '05 Cobalt. Open claim date, 0.16 A u g u s t 12, 2005, the vehicle had 8,500 miles on it, 17 a n d the agent notes is stalls; correct? gal 18 A . Correct. 19 Q . A n d then the body of the paragraph, it says: 20 " R e p u r c h a s e . Bonnie Robustelli. Customer 21 s t a t e s that she has had her vehicle in the shop on a my 2 s e v e r a l occasions for the same stalling concern, and 23 h a t o be towed there this time." 74 I s that c o r r t ? 25 A . Correct.
17 Q . G o to tab 29 -- actually, page 802. This is an 18 e l e c t r o n i c preliminary repurchase authorization. Is 19 t h i s part of the repurchase process? 20 A . Ye s . 21 Q . A n d it says here "Reason For Repurchase" on this 22 d o c u m e n t : 23 " V e h i c l e stalls at highway speed while 24 d r i v i n g . Multiple calls to engineering. Unable to 25 l o c a t e cause for stalling condition."
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1 I s 2 A . Ye s . 4 please. 5 A . Okay. What tab number? 6 M R . FRANKLIN: You can look at the rest of 7 t h e document. Have you done that? 8 T H E WITNESS: Yes. 9 B Y MR. COOPER: 10 Q . 2 9 . 11 A . 2 9 . 12 Q . A m y Rod!' from Limerick, Pennsylvania owned an '05 13 C o b a l t . A claim open date, September 24th, 2005, the 14 v e h i c l e had 1,700 miles on it, and the agent notes 15 s t a l l s ; correct? 16 A . Correct. 17 Q . A n d the body of the document: 18 " C u s t o m e r states vehicle has been stalling 19 t w o to three times a week. Took vehicle in to the 20 d e a l e r and was advised that if steering column is 21 b u m p e d , engine will cut off. Yesterday evening engine 22 c u t off again. Customer called the dealer and advised 23 c o n c e r n , and dealer advised that if she wants out of 24 t h e vehicle, she could call GMAC." 25 A n d again the concern is down there at that what it says?
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1 h e r son who has driven vehicle about eight times. 2 D u r i n g four of these times the vehicle has stalled. 3 T h e dealer has seen the vehicle and has performed a 4 c o m p u t e r update and has also found a TSB that they 5 f e e l may be related to this concern. The customer has 6 the dealer has advised customer of this TSB and has 7 a d v i s e d her that her son should not bump the steering 8 c o l u m n , as this may cause stalling. Customer feels 9 this concern is placing her son's life in danger and 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
3 Q . A n d then go to Bates excuse me, tab number 29,
is afraid to have him drive the vehicle. Customer is seeking repurchase. I have spoken with the service manager who advised the TSB as well and has indicated they have been researching the concerns. I am seeking a decision on repurchase. Also, if repurchase is not an option, what will we be doing for this customer to repair this vehicle?" Did I read that correctly? A. Yes. Q. Go to tab 30, please, sir. A. Which tab number? Q. 30, please. This is Preston Delph from Hebron, Kentucky who is the owner of a 2008 Chevy Cobalt. The GM open claim date, September 27, 2005, the vehicle has a little over 3,900 miles on it, and this vehicle was actually repurchased, and the agent note again is
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1 t h e t h e body of the document, the concern is the 2 e n g i n e stalls; correct? 3 A . Correct. 4 Q . A n d if you go to the next page, Bates number 1842 -5 1 8 8 4 2 . Yeah, we have it there. It says at the middle 6 o f that o r top third of that page, "Escalation to 7 T M . " What does TM mean? 8 A . D o n ' t know. 9 Q . "Customer states vehicle stalling when son's knee hits 10 i g n i t i o n . The vehicle stalls. Mike at dealership 11 t o l d her he talked to husband and told him they are 12 a w a r e of the issue. Mike provided customer with copy 13 o f service bulletin. Customer is fearful for her 14 s o n ' s life. Dealer states it is a known issue and 15 t e l l s customer to have son not bump the ignition. 16 D o e s not even want to take vehicle off dealer's lot 17 f o r fear of something horrible happening. Just wants 18 G M to take the vehicle back. How many people need to 19 d i e for this issue to be a recall?" Did I read that correctly? A. Ye s . p 1 l i r k e l l t h e n the bilitre of the paragraph, Tricia Freshner t a I w i t h CAC, it says: 24 " C u s t o m e r has advised purchased" excuse 25 m e "Customer has advised purchased this vehicle for 1 s t a l l s ; correct? 2 A . Correct. 3 Q . I f you go to the next page, sir, there is a 4 d e s c r i p t i o n of the situation, top paragraph: 5 " C u s t o m e r states the first time engine shut
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6 d o w n , daughter was driving it. Age 18, drives to 7 w o r k . She was driving down the road around 35 miles 8 p e r hour. When it stopped the first time, the 9 s t e e r i n g column locked up, speedometer went down to 10 z e r o , and brakes locked up. Got over to the side of 11 t h e road and tried to start again and it did. 12 C u s t o m e r states this is the third time with mother. 13 C u s t o m e r states daughter was driving down a hill when 14 s t a l l e d out. AC died. All lights on dash went dead 15 a n d shut off. Customer states daughter got it under 16 c o n t r o l . No control of brakes or anything. Got it 17 s t o p p e d , turned off, and it started right up again. 18 C u s t o m e r states last time daughter was pulling out of 19 t h e parking onto the road with green light, and 20 v e h i c l e died in the middle of the road. Almost went 21 u p on the curb and daughter put in park, then 22 r e s t a r t e d it. Customer states she has not been in it 23 w h e n it has happened. September 15th was the third 24 t i m e , and they made a n d they made fell on its 25 f a c e " -- whatever that means -- "but did in six weeks
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1 t i m e . Had the vehicle maybe two to three weeks. 2 C u s t o m e r states vehicle is not safe to drive. Will 3 4 n o t let her daughter drive. CRM apologized." D i d I read that correctly? 1 h i g h l i g h t e d section: 2 " F i l e
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was escalated to AVM and denied
3 r e p u r c h a s e . AVM" a r e a manager -- "stated that he 4 6 7 h a s t h e k e y worked on file closely. AVM stated that there is customer's driving habits. They hit the ignition slot and CRM" e x c u s e me " a n d CRM can close o u t dissatisfied. N o further recommendations for 5 n o t h i n g mechanically wrong with the vehicle. It is
5 A . Ye s . 6 Q . T a b 31, please, sir. 7 A . O k a y. 31? 8 Q . Rosalie Schenker from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania owned a 9 2 0 0 5 Cobalt. The GM claim open date is October 3, 10 2 0 0 5 . The odometer, 2,780 miles. 11 D i d I read that correctly? 12 A . Ye s . 13 Q . A n d the body of the document, it says: 14 " C u s t o m e r states owner of '05 Chevrolet 15 C o b a l t with approximately 2,780 miles. Customer 16 s t a t e s they want to register a complaint on the 17 v e h i c l e . Customer states when her husband was driving 18 t h e vehicle and was adjusting himself, he hit the
8 f i l e
9 d e a l e r at this time." 10 D i d I read that correctly? 11 A . Y e s . 12 Q . 14 G o to tab 32, please. I think on Bates 18904 there is a statement
13 A . S o r r y, I'm just clearing the rest of the pages here. 15 t h a t says "CRM asked if this happened again, and 16 c u s t o m e r stated that it has not happened," after the 17 f i x . 18 S o where do you want me to go now?
19 k e y s . The ignition cut off. Customer states it 20 h a p p e n e d the day he purchased the vehicle, but he 21 d i d n ' t think anything of it. Customer states that she 22 f e e l s that this is dangerous. Customer states that 23 s h e is afraid to drive the vehicle. Customer states 24 t h a t she went to the dealer and they have not come up 25 w i t h a good solution. Dealer put a rubber tiny insert
19 Q .
T a b 32, please. I t says Andrea Ortiz from Chicago,
20 I l l i n o i s owned an '05 Cobalt. Open claim date, 21 O c t o b e r 18th, '05, the vehicle had approximately 22 2 8 , 0 0 0 miles on it, and it says agent notes two 23 s t a l l s ; is that correct? 24 A . Y e s . 25 Q . A n d it looks like, if you look at the next page, that
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1 i n keyhole. Customer states that the ignition key 1 2 3 4 G M T M R H actually settled this case, and the reference i s engine stalling or engine stalls? . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: Yes. I mean it looks like 2 t u r n s off very easily. Customer states that dealer 3 t o l d him that GM engineering told him that the rubber 4 i n s e r t is the fix. Customer states that since he has 5 6 7 h a d t h e D i the insert, it happened again, but has not advised dealer." d I read that correctly? f o r
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5 t h e r e is some kind of settlement agreement there. 6 B Y MR. COOPER: 7 Q . D o you know where the rest of the documents for this 8 c l a i m are? I mean if this is a settlement of the 9 c l a i m , we have one page of the GM computer database 10 p r i n t o u t . 11 M R . FRANKLIN: Objection. 12 B Y MR. COOPER: 13 Q . 14 M T D o you know where the other documents would be? R H . E I don't. FRANKLIN: Object to the extent it WITNESS: Yeah, and the answer would be
8 A . Ye s . 9 Q . I f you go two pages back to page 901, it says:
10 " C u s t o m e r states that when she spoke to 11 d e a l e r , customer states she spoke to Wayne who advisec 12 c u s t o m e r to come in and look at two other Cobalts. 13 C u s t o m e r states that dealer said that two employees at customer's vehicle does. Customer states that dealer P I t h e dealer own Cobalts and it does the same thing that 16 t o l d her that she needs to adapt. Customer states 17 i m t b a t she feels that it is a safety issue and that it 18 i s defective. "CRM" -- the GM employee -- "advises 19 c u s t o m e r that concern has been escalated and 11, 0 r e p u r c h a s e has been denied due to the fact that it is I l * n o t a mechanical issue but an issue with the Al2 s t o m e r ' s driving habits." J 1 I Did I read tomm that correctly? 24 A . Y e s . 25 Q . A n d then at the bottom of the page there, the
15 c a l l s for privileged information. 16 17 n o ,
18 B Y MR. COOPER: 19 Q . A l l right. Ta b 33, please. 20 A . 21 Q . 22 24 25 a I don't know if there are any other documents. Which? T a b 33. Christy Grace from Fresno, California owned n '05 Cobalt. The claim open date is November 3rd, the agent note is stalls. o you see that?
23 2 0 0 5 , the vehicle had a little over 8,000 miles on it, a n d D
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1 A . Ye s . 2 Q . A n d then it says here in the body of the document: 3 " H e d r i c k ' s Chevrolet in Fresno, California told m e -- I guess that's the customer -- that the 5 r e a s o n my car stalled was due to a glitch in the 6 s o f t w a r e and that they applied the program update. I 7 w a s told by the dealership that I needed to contact 8 c u s t o m e r service to receive a case number to fix the 9 b o d y damage caused when the car stalled and my husband 10 l o s t control. I have a copy of the tow receipt. The 11 C H P officer detailed the damage. Employee at 12 H e d r i c k ' s Chevrolet documented the damage before I 13 t o o k my car. Need the car inspected for safety" -14 s o m e t h i n g "miled this message November 1, 2005." 15 I s that what it says? 16 A . Ye s . 17 Q . A n d then if you go to page 1308 where that little 18 g r e e n tab is there, bottom of the paragraph, it says: 19 21 22 23 24 " O w n e r o f f a n d i n o f f description: Customer states 20 h u s b a n d was driving vehicle. Let foot off gas to get ramp. There was no steering so he hit the brake it did not work and slid down the ramp and landed some bushes. Vehicle was dead so he turned vehicle and it started up. Customer states husband walked 1 2 A . D o Ye s . you see that?
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3 Q . " T h e r e had been no problems with the car until 4 S e p t e m b e r 24th, '05. The car stalled once in the 5 m o r n i n g and then completely shut down without warning. 6 N o warning lights came on. M y husband was not able to 7 s t e e r the car, the brakes locked up, the brake pedal 8 w e n t mushy, and the engine system shut down. Thank 9 g o o d n e s s there were no cars around him. T h e car was 10 t o w e d to Hedrick's Chevrolet. Hedrick's told me the 11 r e a s o n my car stalled was due to a glitch in the 12 s o f t w a r e and they applied the program update." 13 D i Ye s . A n d then the last -- next paragraph: " t o I was told by the dealership that I needed contact customer service to receive a case number d I read that correctly? 14 A . 15 Q . 16 17
18 b e f o r e they can fix the body damage caused when the 19 20 21 A . 22 Q . 23 M c a r I stalled and my husband lost control." s Ye s . I f we go to the next tab, 34. R . FRANKLIN: Let me state also, Lance, we that what it says?
24 w i l l stipulate these documents say what they say, to 25 t h e extent that helps speed things up.
25 t h r e e miles home after incident because he was shaken
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1 2 3 4 u p . a t h e D i Ye s . I s this one of the claims that you included in your -Ye s . W h a t was the software glitch that there was with -- this particular vehicle? I don't know specifically. W a s there, in fact, a software glitch? W h e n you read this document, it looks like they the PCM. 16 Q . 1 17 W a s that vehicle-wide, was that for all Cobalts, or Customer states we were told by dealer there was software switch, so they did update, but that was cause of the stalling." d tread that correctly? 1 B Y MR. COOPER: 2 Q . T a b 34. 3 A . Ye s .
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4 Q . A n a t o l e u Bekrev from Spring Hill, Tennessee, he owned 5 a n '05 Cobalt. T h e GM claim open date, November 3rd, 6 2 0 0 5 , the vehicle had 27,000 miles on it, and the 7 a g e n t note is stalls; correct? 8 A . Correct. 9 Q . A n d in the body of the paragraph: 10 " C u s t o m e r states bought the vehicle brand 11 n e w . Vehicle has had problems since day one. Major 12 c o n c e r n now is that the vehicle engine stalls. Engine 13 c u t s off sporadically. Driving or sitting at stop 14 l i g h t s or stop signs. Vehicle has stalled at 80 miles 15 16 17 p e r h i t D i Ye s . I s that one of the claims that you brought with you Ye s . C a n I see that? I s that Bekrev? Thank you. a R b . 35, please. FRANKLIN: Have you had a chance to hour. Customer lost control of vehicle and almost tree." d I read that correctly?
5 A . 6 Q . 8 A . 9 Q . 10 11 A . 12 Q . 13 A .
7 s t a r t i n g with Bates number 19302?
t h e
14 u p d a t e d the software in the powertrain control module
j u s t for this particular vehicle? 41110= 18 A . I -- from what I can tell, they updated it for this 19 I v e h i c l e . T h e r e may have been an update in the software in general. Q. T h e n if you look at Bates number 19310, which is -A. T h i s one? k
18 A . 19 Q . 21 A . 22 Q . 23 24 T M
20 t o d a y ?
I F f e l It's a fa f r o m Ms. Grace to GM's customer 4 s e r v i c e departnIlit regarding the '05 sedan and the 25 i n c i d e n t on September 24th, 2005.
25 r e v i e w that?
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1 T H E WITNESS: Yeah, there is some
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1 m i d d l e of highway. Third party states that daughter 2 c o u l d have been killed if there t h e y wasn't on the 3 s i d e of the road. Third party states took vehicle to 4 d e a l e r and dealer replaced the throttle body. Third 5 p a r t y states now daughter is afraid to drive because 6 v e h i c l e stalled." 7 D i d 8 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
2 d i s c u s s i o n on Bates 19314 about running the vehicle 3 w i t h low fuel and possibly could be the reason for the 4 stall. 5 B Y MR. COOPER: 6 Q . Ta b 35. Mary Mines from Detroit, Michigan owned an 7 ' 0 5 Cobalt. The GM claim open date, November 15th, 8 2 0 0 5 , the vehicle had 1,900 miles on it, and the agent 9 n o t e is stalls; correct? 10 A . Correct. 11 Q . A n d the body of the document: 12 " C a l l e r is son, Bobby Mines. Mr. Mines 13 s t a t e s that his mother purchased the vehicle in July 14 o f '05 and has been in the shop two times for stalling 15 i s s u e s . It happened two times yesterday, and they 16 w i l l have to take the vehicle back again for a third 17 t i m e . " 18 D i d 19 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
9 Q . Ta b 38, please. 10 A . S o they replaced the throttle body on that one. Is 11 t h a t I think that's what we said there; right? 12 Y e a h . Okay. 13 T a b 38? 14 Q . Ye s . Krystal Davis from Willoughby, Ohio owned an '05 15 C o b a l t . The claim open date, November 28th, 2005, 16 v e h i c l e has 16,000 miles on it, and the agent note is 17 s t a l l s ; is that right? 18 A . Ye s . 19 Q . A n d in the body of the paragraph: 20 " C u s t o m e r states vehicle continuing to 21 s t a l l . Was driving vehicle in snow and stalled again 22 a n d spun out into a field. Did not hit anything. No 23 o n e was hurt." 24 D i d 25 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
20 Q . Ta p 36, please. 21 A . 3 6 , you said? 22 Q . Ye s . Mandl Beach from Millbury, Ohio owned an '05 23 C o b a l t . The GM claim open date, November 16th, '05. 24 T h e vehicle had approximately 10,000 miles on it; 25 c o r r e c t ?
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1 A . Ye s . 2 Q . B o d y of the document: 3 " V e h i c l e customer states four-months-old 4 C o b a l t currently in there now. Driving total power, 5 s h u t t i n g car off. Dealer states keys too heavy. 6 K n e e s hitting keys. Last time busy brake shut off and 7 r e s t a r t . Carsales was in the car with the customer 8 a n d it shut off." 9 D i d 10 A . Ye s . 11 M R . I read that correctly? COOPER: We can take a break.
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1 Q . I f you go two pages over to page 639, the bottom 2 r i g h t - h a n d corner, the highlighted section there: 3 " C u s t o m e r issue, has recurrent concerns 4 w i t h vehicle stalling. Last time it happened customer 5 l o s t control of vehicle and spun out into ditch. 6 C u s t o m e r and family are very afraid of vehicle and 7 w i l l not drive it again." 8 D i d 9 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
10 Q . Ta b 39, please. 11 A . I don't see anything c a n I just take a look at the 12 r e s t of the pages before we move on? 13 Q . S u r e . 14 A . S o it looks like this was a -- maybe it was a 15 r e p u r c h a s e , and there was no reason given for the 16 s t a l l . Okay. Which tab? 17 Q . 3 9 . Christopher Whitt from McCarr, Kentucky, an 'Of 18 C o b a l t . December 13th, '05 open claim date. The 19 v e h i c l e has 12,992 miles on it, and the agent notes is 20 s t a l l s ; correct? 21 A . Correct. 22 Q . A n d then in the body of the paragraph, it says: 23 " C u s t o m e r . I'm worried about when my 24 v e h i c l e stalls. I have an 11-month-old baby that 25 r i d e s in this car. When the vehicle quits, I have no
12 V I D E O G R A P H E R : This completes disc one. We 13 a r e off the record at 12:10 p.m. 14 i p p . (A brief recess was taken.) VIDEOGRAPHER: Back on the record at 12:21.
16 T h i s is disc two of GM corporate rep Victor Hakim. 18 B Y MR. COOPER: L Q . Ta b 37, please. This involves Becki Williams from 1917 P lWoodsville, e a s e proceed. Ohio. She is an '05 Cobalt owner. The GM open claim date, November 16th, 2005. The vehicle ha,,
fel t . 4,470 miles on o it; correct? And.the body e document: 25 " T h i r d party states vehicle stalled in the
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1 s t e e r i n g , brakes, and was about involved in an 2 a c c i d e n t . When take the car to the shop, it is always 3 c a n t find anything wrong. Something needs to be done 4 b e f o r e we get hurt." 5 D i d I read that correctly? 6 A . Ye s . 7 Q . I f you look at the next page ending in 680, the
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1 s t a t e s she takes her kids to school, which is only 2 1 5 - 1 0 - 2 0 - m i n u t e drive, and the vehicle is die. 3 C u s t o m e r states the vehicle would die on her and other 4 m e c h a n i c s but never for the dealership. C R M " -- the 5 7 G D M i Ye s . employee -- "advised the customer that CRM will d I read that correctly? 6 c o n t a c t the dealer and call customer back." 8 A .
8 h i g h l i g h t e d section where it says: 9 " D e s c r i p t i o n : Vehicle quits while driving 10 r e g a r d l e s s of speed. Once happened when slowing and 11 r e s t time while driving two times highway speed and 12 o t h e r three times it was in town. Has not happened 13 s i n c e last repair. Put key ring on key. Last time 14 h a p p e n e d was about 45 days ago. They have never made 15 r e p a i r s for that." 16 D i d I read that correctly? 17 A . Ye s . 18 Q . T a b 40, please. 19 A . O k a y. So just let me clear the rest of the pages. 20 22 S t h e o it looks like, on Bates 19682, they 21 o f f e r e d a General Motors protection plan and resolved issue with the customer. 23 Q . T a b 40, please. Emmy Anderson from Independence,
9 Q . T u r n to tab 41, please. 10 A . 11 T 12 Q . O k a y . S o I'm just clearing the rest of the documents. a b 41? Y e s , sir. Judith Russell from Auxvasse, Missouri
13 o w n e d a 2005 Cobalt. T h e claim open date, December 14 2 9 t h , '05. T h e vehicle had 15,000 miles on it, and 15 t h e agent notes is stalls; correct? 16 A . C o r r e c t . 17 Q . A n d the body of the document:
18 " C o m p l a i n t , vehicle engine stall. Husband 19 R o b e r t customer states when going through a curve anc 20 s t e p on brakes, engine would die. Dealer could not 21 d u p l i c a t e . Customer feels safety issue. Dealer tried 22 d r i v i n g home and back to dealership to try to 23 d u p l i c a t e and could not duplicate. Customer only 24 t a k e n into dealership one time for concern. Concern 25 o c c u r r e d two times to Robert and one times to
24 M i s s o u r i owned an '06 Cobalt. The claim open date, 25 D e c e m b e r 27, 2005, the vehicle had 8,000 miles on it,
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1 a n d the agent notes is stalls? 1 f a t h e r 2 A . Correct. 3 Q . A n d the body of the document: 2 s t a t e s does not want vehicle. L o s t confidence in 3 vehicle." 4 D i d 5 A . Ye s . 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1111m_9 b uthe t left it did states the road curves a not. little Customer so it caused customer to go off to to the side of the road and into a grassy median. 211. C u s t o m e r states the left rear bumper has a hole in it. i t s t r r state t h e _vehicle would die five to ten times a day n d 7 i r t a k e s a few minutes after 25 s t a r t i n g the vehicle will it shuts off. Customer 20 21 22 23 24 25 I read that correctly?
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o n e time to father" e x c u s e me. "Customer
4 " C u s t o m e r states was driving vehicle last 5 n i g h t when car shut down and customer lost control, 6 c a u s i n g her to drive into a ditch. Customer states 7 c o n t a c t e d dealer. Dealer told customer to contact CAC 9 W for further assistance."... h a t is CAC?
(Exhibit No. 3 marked.) BY MR. COOPER: Q. I ' m going to show you what we've marked as Exhibit 3, which are additional claims. MR. FRANKLIN: S o we are done with the set that we just -MR. COOPER: Well, I think I just kept all yours -MR. FRANKLIN: Okay. BY MR. COOPER: Q. W e have tab 42. Francis Strickland from Lakeland, Georgia owned an '05 Cobalt. T h e claim open date, January 3rd, 2006, the vehicle had 9,250 miles on it, and the agent note is stalls; correct? A. C o r r e c t . Q. I t says here in the body of the document: "Owns two vehicles. 2004 Silvered and 2005 Cobalt. T h i s concern is regarding the Cobalt. New vehicle with multiple concerns. N o longer feels safe in the vehicle. '05 Cobalt has been in the shop
10 A . C u s t o m e r assistance center. 11 Q . A n d then if you look at the next page ending in 723, I
12 d o n ' t think we highlighted it, but it says: 13 " D e s c r i p t i o n of this incident: Customer 14 s t a t e s she was driving about 20 miles per hour in a construction zone. Customer states she had just taken 16 o f f from a red light, switching to second gear, when the vehicle stalled. Customer could not steer.
I 17 18 C u s t o m e r then pumped the clutch to start the vehicle,
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1 n u m e r o u s times. Does not feel safe in vehicle. 2 V e h i c l e stalls intermittently. Check engine light 3 c o m e s on and sometimes fails to accelerate when 4 p r e s s i n g the gas pedal. Also makes thumping noise 5 c o m i n g from rear of vehicle on right-hand side. 6 S t a t e s they would like GM to exchange the vehicle." 7 I s that correct? 8 A . Correct. 9 Q . T u r n to tab 43, please. 10 A . O k a y. So just let me read the rest of these. 11 O k a y . Which tab? 12 Q . 4 3 , please. Lisa Sanford from Fayetteville, North 13 C a r o l i n a owned an '06 Cobalt. Claim date opened 14 J a n u a r y 16, 2006, the vehicle had 1,200 miles on it, 15 a n d the agent note is stalls; correct? 16 A . Ye s . 17 Q . A n d the body of the paragraph: 18 " T o whom it may concern. Please be aware 19 t h a t the 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt has a serious defect 20 t h a t is not being addressed by General Motors. The 21 c a r stalls and the steering wheel locks up while it is 22 b e i n g driven. This is a random occurrence and not 23 a s s o c i a t e d with any particular driving situation. Why 24 i s it so dangerous? My Cobalt stopped completely in 25 t r a f f i c with my child in the back seat. When the car 1 o f
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this flaw, yet they are still selling the Cobalt." 2 D i d I read that correctly? 3 A . Ye s . That's words from the customer, I believe. 4 Q . I t looks like it, yes. 5 A . Ye s . 6 Q . W e can go to tab 44. 7 A . 44? 8 Q . Ye s . Ronald Heaster from Crawley, West Virginia owned 9 a n '05 Cobalt. A claim open date, January 18th, 2006, 10 t h e vehicle had 18,379 miles on it, and this vehicle 11 w a s actually repurchased, and the agent note is 12 s t a l l s ; correct? 13 A . Correct. 14 Q . A n d the body of the paragraph: 15 " I g n i t i o n switch, customer states. 16 C u s t o m e r was concerned with the ignition switch on his 17 d a u g h t e r ' s '05 Cobalt. The vehicle was just serviced 18 i n the shop about one week from today concerning the 19 k e y coming out of the ignition and the vehicle still 20 r u n n i n g . The vehicle is also having problems with 21 c o m p l e t e l y shutting off in mid driving for no reason. 22 C u s t o m e r is concerned about their daughter's safety. 23 T h e y were told by someone in the dealership that this 24 w a s a normal occurrence on Cobalt& CRM will 25 i n v e s t i g a t e . "
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13
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1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Y e s . Q. T u r n to 45, please, sir.
dies, the steering wheel locks up and the vehicle cannot be controlled. Had the driver behind me not been more alert, I would have been rear-ended at the time. I had to stop, put on my flashers, and restart the vehicle in order to proceed. I t had stopped on other occasions prior to this, and I should have immediately brought it in, but I thought perhaps there was air in the line or some.oth.er innocuous problem. Until the instance above I had not realized how dangerous it was. The Cobalt has done this about ten times since we purchased it about a month ago." Did I read that correctly? A. Ye s . Q. T h e n if you go to the next tab. That's it. MR. FRANKLIN: What is the page number?
Is that what that says? A. Ye s . Q. I f you look at the top of the next page. A. Yeah. On that current page, on 19985, "CRM called the dealership and was told that this was not a normal feature." Where did you want me to go? Q. To p of the next page, 987. Actually, it's the page after that to the right, and it says: "Customer states they are concerned with safety. Customer states vehicle stalled three times before Christmas." Is that what it says?
16 $ 1 M R . COOPER: Bates 978. 17 B Y MR. COOPER: E 18 Q . F i r s t full paragraph, which says: 19 m h . . . "Although the mechanical department at the 20 d e a l e r s h i p has a bulletin alerting them of this ; 1 . p r o b l e m , the Cobalt is still being sold to 22s u s p e c t i n g conslimers. They are not being told of 19r23 f l i Chevrolet s r e n t iof a l Fay7r;ville, lytfilerous defect. Reed-Lallier North Carolina has three 25 v e h i c l e s which have been returned for repair because
A. Ta b ? Q. 4 5 . A. 4 5 .
Q. S a l o m o n Maldonado from Arleta, California owned an '0 Cobalt. Claim open date, February 3rd, 2006, vehicle had 16,152 miles, and the agent note is stalls; correct? A. Y e s . Q. T h e body of the document: "Vehicle customer states I just wanted to
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1 l e t someone know that the vehicle is acting like this. 2 T h e vehicle stops just in the middle of the road, and 3 t h i s last time I almost got hit in the rear because 4 t h e vehicle behind me was not expecting me to just 5 s t o p in the middle of the road. The vehicle stopped 6 i n the middle of the road on me three times: One, I 7 w a s going over a bump; two, I was going up a hill; and 8 3 is when I was making a turn to another street." 9 D i d 10 A . Ye s . I read that correctly? 1 A . Ye s . 2 Q . Ta b 48, please. 3 A . Okay. 4 Q . 48? 5 A . Ye s .
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6 Q . Teresa Lafehr from Windsor Colorado, owner of a 200! 7 C o b a l t . Open claim date, February 20th, 2006. The 8 v e h i c l e mileage 13,740. The agent notes is stalls; 9 correct? 10 A . Ye s . 11 Q . A n d the vehicle, body: 12 " T h e customer states she has been into the 13 d e a l e r several times. Dealer gave customer AVDOC" -14 w h a t e v e r that means -- "that says low key ignition 15 c y l i n d e r has the potential for customers to 16 i n a d v e r t e n t l y turn off switch while driving. Doc says 17 t h i s tends to happen with short customers, and 18 c u s t o m e r states she is not short. The ignition switch 19 w a s changed out in about October, but the concern has 20 h a p p e n e d again. The engine stalls while the customer 21 i s driving." 22 D i d 23 A . Ye s . 25 g o I read that correctly?
11 Q . P a g e 46, please. Or tab 46. Excuse me. Brandy 12 A t k i n s , Kernersville, North Carolina, owner of an '05 13 C o b a l t . The claim open date, February 6, 2006, the 14 v e h i c l e has 20,000 miles on it; correct? 15 A . Correct. 16 Q . B o d y of the document: 17 " N a t u r e of concern. Vehicle concern. 18 M e s s a g e . I haven't had my Cobalt long enough to be 19 h a v i n g trouble with it. But twice now while in drive 20 22 23 25 o n a n d m y D i the highway my car has turned off for no reason. they didn't know what was wrong and blamed it or heavy key chain. Well, my key chain isn't heavy d I read that correctly? 21 T h e first time it happened I took it to the dealership
24 a n y m o r e , and my car turned off again."
24 Q . G o to tab 49, please. This is Teresa Lafehr again, so to tab 50.
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1 A . Ye s . 2 Q . Ta b 47, please. 3 A . O k a y. 4 Q . Ta b 47, please. Nicholas Skias from Wernersville, 5 6 7 8 P e n n s y l v a n i a owned an '06 Cobalt. Claim date, open c l a i m date, February 10th, 2006. Agent note is s t a l l s ; correct? A . Ye s . 1 A . Yo u are saying this is a repeat of that last one? 2 Q . Ye s . Yes. 3 A . Okay.
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4 Q . Ta b 50, Brian Williams from Danbury, Connecticut, '05 5 C o b a l t owner. Open date, claim open date, March 14, 6 2 0 0 6 , the vehicle had 5,000 miles on it, and GM 7 r e p u r c h a s e d this vehicle, and the agent note is 8 s t a l l s ; correct? 9 A . Ye s . 10 M R . FRANKLIN: Is this number 49? 11 M R . COOPER: 50. 49 was a duplicate. 12 B Y MR. COOPER: 13 Q . I t says -- and in the body of the document, it says: 14 " W o r k history number 95. Car shutting down 15 w h i l e driving. Customer states vehicle has four times 16 s h u t down while driving. Loses power steering. 17 D a n g e r o u s . Afraid to drive car, and it has sat mostly 18 f o r two months. Wife had car today, and again, it 19 j u s t shut right down. Had bad words with dealership." 20 D i d I read that correctly? 21 A . Yo u know, I kind of lost where you were. I'm sorry. 22 O h , yeah, right here, you are saying. Okay. Yes. 23 Q . A l l right? 24 A . Ye s . 25 Q . A n d then the next t o p of the next page, 2401 o r
9 Q . T h e message -- the vehicle concern, the message is 10 " I have two problems concerning my Cobalt 11 S S . First, as I am driving down the road, my engine 12 j u s t shuts off out of nowhere. This incident has 13 h a p p e n e d twice, once traveling at about 55 miles per 14 h o u r , and another at around 40. After this happened, the car would not fire back up until approximately 16 f i v e minutes later. I did not spend $22,000 for a car 17 to have these problems. Also, I just got into an 18 automobile accident, and the problem with that is my airbags did not deploy. The impact was definitely 20 f a s t and hard enough to where they should have. I Cw something about these items.to I fbe noforced actions, 2 a en t taken about done the problems, I'm going 23 t o file a lawsuit because these are some big safety Ilarmst 24 i s s u e s . " 25 D i d I read that correctly? 19
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1 A . Correct. 2 Q . A n d the comments here in the body of the document: 3 " M y husband and I purchased an '05 Chevy 4 C o b a l t last Saturday, May 13th, '06, and on several 5 o c c a s i o n s the car has just quit while it was being 6 d r i v e n . We took the car to the Chevrolet shop in 7 S i l o a m Springs and they can't pinpoint the problem. 8 T h i s is a huge problem and very dangerous. Could 9 s o m e o n e please help? Thank you." 10 D i d 11 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
excuse me, 0401, it says: "Customer states vehicle is not safe and wants GM to fix it before him, his wife, or someone else gets killed. Doesn't want to hear it can't be duplicated, It's done it four times in 5,000 miles." Did I read that correctly? A. Ye s . Q. A n d then go two more pages or three more pages back to the document at the bottom, 404, where the green tab is there. Do you see that? A. Yes. Q. And it says: "Customer states his wife will no longer drive the vehicle after the last incident on Friday evening when she just missed running into the back of a vehicle. Customer states he talked with Rob at the dealership who he told they would not drive the car anymore or make payments. They like the car, but it's unsafe and it's going to kill someone." Did I read that correctly? A. Yes. Q. Turn to tab 51, please. A. Okay. So where am I going now? Q. 51.
12 Q . Ta b 53, please. 13 A . Ta b 53? 14 Q . Ye s . Michael Saternitzky from Neillsville, Wisconsin, 15 o w n e r of a 2006 Chevy Cobalt. The claim open date, 16 M a y 23, 2006. Vehicle mileage, 2,000 miles. 17 I s that correct? 18 A . Ye s . 19 Q . T h e body of the document: 20 " V e h i c l e complaint. Customer states 21 i g n i t i o n has gone out twice on the vehicle and 22 c u s t o m e r does not feel safe and secure while driving 23 i t . Is hoping GM will take the vehicle back. 24 C u s t o m e r has owned multiple GM vehicles in the past 25 a n d just traded an '04 in for this one. Customer has
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1 A . 51. 2 Q . Kathryn Shaffer from Malvern, Ohio, owner of an '05 3 C h e v y Cobalt. Claim open date, May 5th, 2006, vehicle 4 h a d 11,000 miles on it, and the agent note is stalls; 5 correct? 6 A . Correct. 7 Q . A n d if you look at the body of the document, there are 8 a number of complaints. I have highlighted the ones 9 r e l a t e d to stalling, where it says: 10 " C u s t o m e r states now the car shut off on 11 d a u g h t e r at 55 miles per hour yesterday. Customer 12 s t a t e s now scared to put her daughter in the car. 13 C u s t o m e r states again now we are getting into danger." Is that what she said? A . 16 Yis M R . FRANKLIN: Object to form. 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
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vehicle for about two weeks before the steering locked up and the ignition quit working. The dealer fixed it. Now, about two weeks later, customers wife was driving it and it happened again." Did I read that correctly? A. Yes. Q. Tab 54, please. A. Okay. Q. Shelley Hill from Cleveland, Ohio, owner of an '05 Cobalt. The claim open date, January 5th, 2006. The vehicle mileage, 22,000 miles; correct? A. Yes. Q. And the agent note is stalls; correct? A. Correct. Q. And then the "customer seeks" here: "Customer seeks repurchase. Customer states her vehicle has cut off since she purchased vehicle. Customer states the dealer has attempted to repair several times. Customer seeks to file with the Better Business Bureau. Customer states previous rep" -- excuse me -- "customer seeks if the dealer is lying by advising that she has not brought vehicle in for service. Customer states previous rep advised only one repair. Customer states she has a ton of invoices that document that she has been to the dealer
171 1 4 T 1 H E WITNESS: Well, that's what the 18 d o c u m e n t says, right. 19 B Y MR. COOPER: Q. Sure. And if you can go to tab 52. 1-11t A . 5 2 . 142 l e i b e i n d y Wind from Siloam Springs, Arkansas, an '05 24 25 Cobalt owner. A claim open date, May 22nd, 2006, the vehicle has a little over 20,000 miles on it, and the agent note is stalls; correct?
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1 m o r e than once. Customer states she shouldn't have to 2 g o to dealer six times now with new vehicle. Customer 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. Yes. Tab 57, please. I'm there.
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is fixed and is taking car for test drive. Customer begging for a new car. S h e is too afraid for car will do it again while her daughter drives it." Did I read that correctly?
3 s t a t e s this is a safety concern. Customer states the 4 v e h i c l e has shut off while coasting through an 5 i n t e r s e c t i o n . Customer states the dealer has tried 6 t e l l i n g her different stories. Customer states dealer 7 a d v i s e d too many keys on the ring, different type of 8 g a s , ignition switch, et cetera. Customer states she 9 i s taking vehicle to dealer on Monday. Customer 10 s t a t e s she has had numerous other concerns that she 11 d o e s not care about because they were not safety 12 r e l a t e d . Customer states she is about to file with 13 14 15 t h e n o t D i Ye s . T a b 55, please. O k a y . 55? Y e s , sir. Stacey Mallett from Cartersville, Georgia, vehicle had 4,900 miles on, and the agent note Better Business Bureau. Customer states she is the only person with a cutting-off concern." d I read that correctly?
Jamie Bella from Erlanger, Kentucky, owner of an '06 Cobalt. Claim open date, June 28, 2006. Vehicle has 10,400 miles on it; correct? Yes. And the body of the customer complaint says here: "Customer owned the vehicle for eight months. I n those eight months, the vehicle has been in the dealership eight times for service problems. Customer purchased the vehicle on a Friday. Monday morning the car was in the service department. T h e car completely shut down on a busy highway. S h e has been working with the dealership for a long time to try and correct the problems she is having with this vehicle. T h e car will completely die in the middle of the highway. S h e doesn't feel safe in this vehicle anymore. S h e has been in a rental vehicle for the past two weeks." Did I read that correctly?
16 A . 17 Q . 18 A . 19 Q . 21 22
20 o w n e r of an '05 Cobalt. Claim open date, May 31, '06, t h e s a y s stalls; correct? A n d if you look at the next page, there is a
23 A . C o r r e c t . 24 Q .
25 d e s c r i p t i o n of the customer statements. It's 1226.
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1 I t ' s the tab there you see, and it states: 2 " C u s t o m e r states the vehicle has stopped 3 t w o times in the middle of the road. Customer states 4 w h e n the vehicle starts to act up, if you turn the 5 v e h i c l e off and turn it back on, the vehicle goes back 6 t o normal. Customer states the vehicle is very 7 d a n g e r o u s to drive. Customer states she is seeking a 8 r e p u r c h a s e of the vehicle." 9 D i d I read that correctly? 10 A . Ye s . 11 Q . 12 A . 13 T a b 56, please. S o it looks like on Bates 21228 that the body computer changed, the BCM. 1 2 4 5 Y A. e s . T Q.a b 58, please.
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3 O A. k a y . Next? 5 Q.8 . 5 A.8 .
Q.t r i c i a Manoy, East Windsor, New Jersey, owner of a 6 P a 7 2 0 0 6 Cobalt. Claim open date, August 22nd, 2006. T h e 8 v e h i c l e had 16,980 miles on it; correct? 9 A . Ye s . 10 Q . 11 A n d the alleged product allegation: involved in a collision. Customer " V e h i c l e
12 s t a t e s : Customer called in once to file product 13 a l l e g a t i o n report. States this shouldn't happen on a 14 b r a n d - n e w vehicle. S o n was driving the car and picked 15 17 u p his friend on their street when the vehicle -- but he slammed into a curb. Dealer states the 16 s u d d e n l y stalled. H e decided to pull over but he w a s 18 e n g i n e blew and it's a 83,300 repair for the parts
w a s
Q. T a b 58. Eric Olsen from Hauppauge, New York, owner of an '08 Cobalt. The claim open date, June 21, 2008, 16 1 17 t h e i s vehicle had 1,800 miles on it, and the agent note stalls; correct?
19 Q . A n d the body of the document here: 1 18 A . Correct. 20 " S e c o n d time repairs have been done for the 2. e n s na imn e g problem. perfect.The 27 days lateroff. carIt shut in middle (1. car shut wasoff repaired, s i ) 2 3 I n t e r s e c t i o n . l k s i l i m e r asked dealer to fix simple r 4 p r o b l e m s as well as the interior. Dealer never fixed 25 t h o s e . Today Larry, service manager, thinks the car
19 d a m a g e d . " 20 21 A . 22 Q . 23 A . 24 I s Ye s . T a b 59, please. S o this one sounds like he had a major problem with engine or blew the engine, is what I read there on that what it says?
t h e
25 2 4 4 3 4 . Okay.
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1 Q . 2 3 a T a b 59. Tosha Moss from Allentown, Pennsylvania owned n '05 Cobalt. Claim open date, September 13, 2006, vehicle had 29,172 miles on it, and the agent
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1 a b o v e . Second, the problem I have with my car is a
2 s c a r y one. M y car is currently at Heritage Auto 3 P l a z a . I t is there because I was in a car accident 4 w h e n the power in my car completely shut off while I 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. Yes. Tab 61, please. MR. FRANKLIN: I need to take a quick A. Y e s . Q. T h e n it says: "I took my car to Rosenthal Chevrolet. They told me nothing was wrong, it was a fluke and would never happen again. I'm now completely afraid of my car. Again they have said there is no problem. I have since learned some things about how the Cobalt is made. I t is very disturbing. I do not want the car. C a n someone please contact me so we can discuss how to resolve this?" Did I read that correctly? w a s driving it. T h e steering wheel did not work, the brakes were unresponsive, and everything in the cockpit went to zero. Only the headlights and the radio continued to work. This is the second time this has happened. T h e first time I was able to move the car off the road." Did I read that correctly?
t h e
4 n o t e s is stalls; correct? 5 A . Correct. 6 Q . A n d if you look at the next page, at the bottom of 7 3 5 3 1 . D o you have 3531? 8 A . Ye s . 9 Q . 11 12 I t says here: turned off on her three times. Customer states first week of August customer was driving in 10 " C u s t o m e r doesn't feel safe in vehicle that h a s t h e
13 v e h i c l e and vehicle lost power steering. Customer 14 t o o k vehicle to dealer for a diagnosis, but dealer was 15 u n a b l e to find any problem with the vehicle. Customer 16 a g a i n was driving on the streets and the vehicle again 17 l o s t power steering. Customer then again took the 18 v e h i c l e to the dealer and again the dealer couldn't 19 f i n d anything wrong." 20 D i d I read that correctly? 21 A . Ye s . 22 O . T a b 60, please.
23 A . O k a y. Ta b 60. 24 O . H a r m o n y Wade, Alexandria, Virginia, owner of a 2006 25 C o b a l t . The claim open date, November 7, 2006. The
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 15 (14 16 I17 18 19 20 1w 1112 24 25 vehicle had 4,500 miles on it; correct?
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1 break.
2 V I D E O G R A P H E R : We're off the record at 3 1 : 0 5 p.m. 4 6 G ( o A brief recess was taken.) 5 V I D E O G R A P H E R : Back on the record at 1:12. ahead. 7 B Y MR. COOPER: 8 Q . T a b 61, please. Nancy Engle from Orlando, Florida,
A. Correct. Q. A n d if you look at the next page ending in 861, bottom left, it says "Vehicle shut off while driving." Do you see that? A. Ye s . Q. A n d if you look at the next page, 862, the center of the page, it says: "The customer states alleged product allegation collision. Customer states the vehicle shut down causing no control over the vehicle. The vehicle was unresponsive, causing a collision. Customer seeks reimbursement for rental vehicle and wants money back. The car is a lemon, I don't want that car ever again in my life -- or in life." Excuse me. "I keep saying I'm going to go and get it and I just haven't. CRM advised customer that their information will be forwarded to the product allegation department within the BRC." Did I read that correctly? A. Ye s . 1 page en din in 863, there is a "Vehicle Concern"
9 o w n e r of an '05 Cobalt. T h e claim open date, 10 N o v e m b e r 30, 2006, vehicle has 11,775 miles on it, and 11 t h e agent notes is stalling; correct? 12 A . C o r r e c t . 13 Q . A n d it says:
14 " R e c u r r i n g engine problem. Customer states 15 e n g i n e keeps shutting off. Happened six times. Wheel 16 w o u l d lock. Brought it to a GM dealership, but dealer 17 c o u l d not duplicate concern." 18 D i Ye s . I f you look at the next page ending in 848, bottom H e r daughter bought a 2005 Cobalt. S h e is d I read that correctly? 19 A . 20 Q . 22 23 "
21 l e f t - h a n d paragraph, it says:
t h e second owner and she is still in warranty. S h e
paragraph, and it says: "First, I actually have a 2006 Cobalt, but that option wasn't available on the pull-down menu
24 p u r c h a s e d the vehicle approximately a month and a hal 25 a g o , beginning of October, and since then, when she is
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VICTOR HAKIM J MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS
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1 d r i v i n g on the road, the engine would stop working and 2 t h e steering locks. They have bought it into the 3 d e a l e r s h i p , and they have been unable to duplicate the 4 p r o b l e m , as it happened approximately six times and 5 t h e y cannot seem to find out what is wrong with it. 6 M s . Engle is extremely worried that the engine will go 7 o u t at the wrong time and there will be a serious
8 accident."
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Did I read that correctly? A. Ye s . Q. Ta b 64, please. Dale Johnston from McKeesport, Pennsylvania, owner of an '05 Cobalt. GM claim open date, January 18th, 2007, vehicle mileage 27,500, and the agent notes stalls; correct? A. Correct. Q. A n d the customer statement at the bottom of the page: "Customer states has had numerous problems with this car. Many warning fights keep coming on, engine stalls, power steering locks up, and this almost causes daughter to have an accident. Transmission." Did I read that correctly? A. Ye s . Q. Ta b 65, please. A. S o Bates 22366 says -- it says: "Advised, called in" a n d this is sort of in the middle lower portion of that -- "the dealership replaced the computer ignition system in the car, and it's okay now. Will call again if it acts up, but he doesn't think that will happen now, and thanked me for all my help." So it looks like they changed the computer ignition system in that one.
9 D i d 10 A . Ye s .
I read that correctly?
11 Q . Ta b 62, please. Gabriel Karam from Burson, 12 C a l i f o r n i a , an owner of an '05 Cobalt. Claim open 13 d a t e , December 4th, 2006. Vehicle miles, 17,000. 14 A g e n t notes, stalls; correct? 15 A . Correct. 16 Q . A n d then the customer complaint: 17 " C u s t o m e r calling on behalf of daughter, 18 J e n n i f e r Karam. Customer states happened the first 19 t i m e two or three months after purchase. Jennifer 20 K a r a m . He feels as though the vehicle is not safe for 21 h i s daughter because it happened all of a sudden. 22 C u s t o m e r seeks for the problem to be fixed." 23 D i d 24 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
25 Q . Ta b 63, please. Virginia Aranda from Fort Worth,
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1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
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1 Q . T a b 65, please. To m Edwards, owner of a -- or owned
Texas owned a 2006 Cobalt. The GM claim open date December 20, 2006. Vehicle mileage, 1,200 miles; correct? A. Yes. Q. And the customer statement or work history: The car keeps dying on her. Customer states owns Chevy Cobalt 2006. It keeps dying on her. It happened five times this last week. Customer is afraid something might happen to her since she is elderly. Customer took the vehicle to the dealership and they said they can't find anything." Did I read that correctly? A. Ye s . Q. L o o k at the bottom of the page, "Transfer from "Customer states stalled on her on 135 and M r , " it says:
2 2 0 0 6 Chevy Cobalt. Claim open date, January 22nd, 3 2 0 0 7 , and this was actually a repurchase? The vehicle
4 w a s repurchased? 5 A . Ye s . 6 Q . I t says here on the bottom: 7 " C u s t o m e r states been in and out of
8 d e a l e r s h i p for five times. Dealer cannot duplicate

9 11 12 14 15 t h e a n d H a D e problem on the vehicle. Customer states that there is something wrong with the transmission. does not enjoy to drive it anymore. H e is a GM lemon case." i Ye s . T a b 66, please. T a b 66. d I read that correctly? 10 s o m e t i m e s when he is driving, the vehicle dies out,
13 e m p l o y e e . Wants to speak to us so that he won't file
16
16 A . 17 Q . 18 A .
17 4 1 1 2 0 south. Great people at the dealership. Third or 18 f o u r t h time it has been in there. Visited her in her 19 h o m e twice. Could have got killed twice because it and it just floated to the side of the road. Started 2 a f t e r that. Five times it stalled on her last week. 23 1 rrified to go altywh_ere because she is scared it will all IN her. S h e l l t never had to drive in the slow stalled on her twice. Luckily the Lord blessed her
19 Q . D a n i e l l e Fee from Tupperlake, New York owned a 2005 20 C o b a l t . T h e claim open date, February 22nd, 2007,
21 v e h i c l e mileage, 20,730, and the agent note is stalls.

22 23 A . 24 Q . 25 " D o Ye s . A n d the body of the document: C a r shutting off while driving. Lauri you see that?
25 l a n e s . "
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1 D u k e f t e , mother, calling in for daughter. Customer 2 s t a t e s daughter is traveling distance of one hour and 3 1 5 every day to school. Second time this has 4 h a p p e n e d . Car shut off going 55 miles an hour and the 5 c a r shut off, everything went black, steering locked, 6 w h i c h she then had no control. She went into a spin 7 a n d then came to a stop on the side of the road. Came 8 t o a stop in a snowbank. Called dealership once again 9 t h i s morning. She was not hurt, no damage done, but 10 m o t h e r very afraid something terrible will happen. 11 V e h i c l e has been in before, and they could not find 12 a n y t h i n g . " 13 D i d 14 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
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sons in the vehicle because the vehicle has been shutting off." Is that what it says? A. Yes. Q. It says: "And there have been problems with antifreeze leaking and the sunroof fell and the vehicle has had a misfire. Dealer states that there was water in the gas. We don't use the cheap stuff because he owns the car, but his sons drive it. He is a big man. Jason Haim at the dealer says that he was going to personally drive it, but he is not sure if he really did that. But it is not safe to be driving. Dealer says that they would call GM. I guess they did call GM, but he is afraid that it will stall on their boys and put an engine switch on the vehicle. But when you are pulling over, you don't have time to be pushing the button. He takes it for maintenance. Nairn Jason, head of the service department, names thE guys that worked on it, Chris Helferd, Christine, but he was told that Jason was not in until noon. Dealership is closed." Did I read that correctly? A. Yes. Q. Tab 69, please.
15 Q . Ta b 67, please. 16 A . Okay. 67? 17 Q . Ye s , sir. Richard Cline from Saint Albans, West 18 V i r g i n i a owned a 2005 Cobalt. The claim open date, 19 M a r c h 15th, 2007. Vehicle mileage, 20,940; correct? 20 A . Ye s . 21 Q . A n d the vehicle concern, the message is: 22 " I purchased a Cobalt for my wife nearly 23 t w o years ago. We have had it in the shop several 24 t i m e s and we have had nothing but problems with it. 25 E a c h month it is something new and she barely drives
18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
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1 i t . I'm beyond furious because each time we take it 2 t o the shop, they mysteriously find nothing wrong with 3 i t . The engine stalls, the steering wheel ignition 4 l o c k s up, it leaks, it rattles. The AC surges and 5 l o c k s up. This is ridiculous. I want something done 6 f o r the safety of my wife and children before the car 7 b r e a k s down on the side of the road. Can someone 8 c o n t a c t me and get this resolved? Apparently no one 9 l o c a l l y is competent enough to handle the situation. 10 I would either like to have the car completely 11 r e p a i r e d , or I feel that her car should be replaced 12 i m m e d i a t e l y. Please contact me." 13 D i d 14 A . Ye s . I read that correctly?
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 2 3
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A. O k a y. 69. Q. P a u l Graveline from Virginia Beach, Virginia owned e 2005 Cobalt. The open date, claim open date, was April 6, 2007, and the agent notes was stalls; correct? A. Correct. Q. T a b 70, please. Christine Rafool from Canton, Georgia, owner of a 2005 Cobalt. _Claim open date, April 13, 2007, the mileage was 15,000, and the agen notes was stalls; correct? A. Correct. Q. A n d it says here in the body of the document: "Customer states" -- it says "Engine stalling. Customer states was purchased for the daughter and it stalled. Today turning onto the side street and it stalled on the daughter while she was driving it. Customer states that she has filed a lemon law. We do not have a lawyer yet, but we have filed the papers. Someone at the place where I filed the lemon law papers told me to contact the customer assistance center. Having the lights come on is not major, but having a car stall while driving is pretty major. This car shutting down as my daughter is driving and I want this documented so that GM knows that this is a concern with the Cobalt. This is a
4
5 6
15 Q . Ta b 68, please. 16 A . Okay. Tab 68? I 17 Q . Ye s , sir. Bradley Zinn from Hanover, Pennsylvania 4wift19 o w n e d Vehicle a 2006 Cobalt. GM claim open date, March 19th 2007. mileage, 11,000. Agent notes, stalls; correct? A. Ye s . Q. T h e body of the document: I " V e h i c l e t u s t o m e r states they just got the 4 v e h i c l i e back, buTMey have taken the vehicle to the 25 d e a l e r about four times and he feels unsafe having his
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1 s a f e t y issue, and I don't want someone to get killed 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 o T " A n d t h e D i Ye s . T a b 71, please. Tyrice Goodwin, Baltimore, Maryland r h I seriously hurt. Customer seeks let GM know what vehicle is doing w h a t this vehicle is doing." e CRS, or the GM employee, states: certainly will document everything down. being you have filed a lemon law, I'm no longer trouble you've been having, and this is all d I read that correctly? t h e 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. Yes. Tab 74, please.
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would remove this alarm, we could further diagnose it. If it's damage from the alarm installation, I cannot cover it under warranty." So there is a discussion there, I suppose, as a possible cause with an aftermarket alarm system. Q. A l l right. Ta b 73, please. Trixsy Rivera from Palmyra, Pennsylvania owned a 2006 Cobalt. Claim open date, May 23, 2007. Vehicle mileage, 13,125. T h e agent notes is stalls; correct? A. Correct. Q. A n d then: "Customer states the vehicle already died down on me twice. O n e was on the highway and the other one was in the road. I almost had an accident because of this, and I want to file a lemon law. Customer is currently at the dealership right now." Did I read that correctly?
7 a b l e to assist you with this. I do apologize for all 9 d o c u m e n t e d down." 11 A . 12 Q .
13 o w n e d a 2005 Cobalt. T h e claim open date, April 21, 14 2 0 0 7 , vehicle mileage, 13,936, and the agent note is 15 s t a l l s ; correct? 16 A . C o r r e c t . 17 Q . A n d the body of the document: 18 " C u s t o m e r states customer frustrated. 19 T w o - y e a r - o l d vehicle. Dealer could not find anything 20 w r o n g . Every time she hits a bump, the vehicle cuts 21 23 o f f . a n d Almost caused five accidents. Brought the still could not duplicate it. Last time customer the vehicle to dealer is April 6, 2007. Service 22 v e h i c l e to the dealership. Dealer would test drive it 24 t o o k
MR. FRANKLIN: I f you need to take a break at any point, let us know. THE WITNESS: It's -- what is it, 1:30? S o guess I have a question, if I'm allowed to ask it. Am I allowed to ask a question? MR. COOPER: We'll go off the record.
25 a d v i s o r was Jonathan Luther. Customer is on the road
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1 r i g h t now when the concern happened again." 2 D i d I read that correctly? 3 A . Ye s . 4 Q . T a b 72, please. Aaron Loring from Beaumont, Texas 5 o w n e d a 2005 Cobalt. The claim open date, 8-22-2007. 6 V e h i c l e mileage, 26,000; correct? 7 A . Ye s . 8 Q . B o d y of the document: 9 " C u s t o m e r calling about stalling problem. 10 C u s t o m e r states the vehicle will lose power when 11 d r i v i n g and sometimes it will turn off. Have taken 12 t h e vehicle into the dealer three times. Was advised 13 t h a t vehicle is fine and they cannot duplicate the Did I read that correctly? I o l a 1 p r o b l e m . Customer is afraid to drive it." 16 A . Ye s . I17 0 . ' l a b 73, please. O n Bates 25479, there is a discussion, about in the states last time we saw it, it was 2 ( L u n c h recess.)
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1 V I D E O G R A P H E R : We're off the record. 1:34. 3 V I D E O G R A P H E R : W e are back on the record a_ 4 2 : 1 8 . This is disc three of the video deposition of 5 3 0 ( b ) ( 6 ) GM corporate representative Victor Hakim. 6 P l e a s e proceed. 7 B Y MR. COOPER: 8 Q . T u r n to tab 74, please. A r e you there? 9 A . 10 Q . Ye s . T h i s is A. Stone from Dallas, Georgia, owned an '06
11 C o b a l t . G M claim date, open date, July 5th, 2007, 12 v e h i c l e mileage, 26,000 miles, and again, agent notes 13 i s stalls; is that correct? Ye s . A n d if you go down to the body of the complaint, which M y daughter was driving the vehicle 14 A . 15 Q . 17 "
16 w e ' v e highlighted, it says: 18 T u e s d a y evening and it started running rough. S h e 19 g l a n c e d down and a light came on. S h e couldn't tell 20 22 23 24 i f it was a red or amber light. A f t e r a couple of from under the hood. S h e was making a turn into friend's driveway when the engine shut down and off all power to the vehicle. She had to run the 21 m i n u t e s it started to flash, and then white smoke came
18 A . 1 20
19 m i d d l e of the page, that says: " D e a l e r
C1 o o n s the of this month. I t says a 2 . *g n t i 17th c test at 29500 found a Uperformed code, U2103. Called TAC. Advised check a j C h e c k e d the bulletins. 24 c o n n e c t i o n s . Recommended customer remove non-factory 25 a l a r m system. I t was a communication code. I f she
o u t h e r c u t
25 v e h i c l e up on an embankment because it was the only
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Ye s . Q. T u r n to 75, please. A. S o this one looks like it's got an investigative report with it, a PAR report, where they investigated the vehicle, starting on Bates 13892, and they were trying to determine whether the smoke and the condition, whether the crash occurred first or that was first. Okay. Q. S o tab 75, Diana De Jesus from Poughquag, New York, 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt owner. GM claim open file date, July 26th, 2007, vehicle mileage, 31,000 miles, and agent notes is stalls; correct? A. Ye s . Q. A n d if you go to the next page, at the top right where it is highlighted, it says: "We had an experience where the vehicle died on us and we put it in neutral and got start. Dealer advised that they took car back in May, dealing with Mark, business manager, he vent, and tells us all the issues that are going on and the dealer and not giving us the proper treatment. The service manager spoke to this past Wednesday and scheduled appointment for Saturday, and they going to keep me in car and see way to get it to stop." Did I read that correctly? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
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Q. A n d then it says: "I brought the car in for window whistling. I told them about it then. It doesn't happen every single day. It's intermittent. I took it over for a recall and told them about it again. They told me to take some key rings off of the key chain, cut her a new key and put in new ignition switch. The vehicle has 15,000 miles. I've had it for two years. I feel they sold us a lemon. It's to the point I don't want the car anymore." Did I read that correctly? A. Yes. Q. Turn to tab 77, please. A. Okay. 77? Q. Yes, sir. John Ptashnik is the owner, New Baltimore,
Michigan. '05 Chevy Cobalt. G M claim open date of 6-5-2007, vehicle mileage, 29,959, and again the agent notes vehicle stalls; correct?
A.
Correct.
Q. And then in the body of the document:

"Car keeps stalling. Customer states that he is very frustrated with this whole situation. M y vehicle has been causing a lot of trouble, keeps stalling out when you go over bumps. A n d now, when I go to visit my daughter, we have to cross railroad
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1 2 w h a t t h e they can do. Problems are just increasing with car. Vehicle is financed. I feel for my safety 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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tracks, and it keeps stalling when we go across. I feel that it is a safety hazard. Dealer just recently replaced the ignition switch, steering shaft, patch up electrical tape with silver tape, battery leak out erosion materials, hose cracked in vent system." Did I read that correctly?
A. Y e s .
3 4
o I
myself and my family." s that what it says?
5 A . 6 Q .
Ye s . T a b 76, please.
7 A . O k a y. 8 Q . Ta b 76. Are you there?

9 A . Ye s .
a
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Q. Tu r n to tab 78, please.. A. S o to Bates 25599, it looks like the service reps drove the vehicle over heavy railroad tracks and could not duplicate it and dirt roads and could not duplicate the condition. Q. Ta b 78. Nicole Bradley is the owner from Chicago, Illinois. It's a 2005 Cobalt. The claim open date, 9-5-2007. The vehicle mileage, 11,179 miles; correct? A. Correct. Q. Middle of the paragraph -- excuse me, middle of the document here, it says: "Customer called in having a problem with the vehicle. Customer said that the vehicle has been having the same problem for the last two years. Customer says -- said that the vehicle always loses power. Customer said that, while she is driving, the vehicle suddenly jerks and stops. Customer said that she already took it to the dealership and all they do
10 Q . T h e owner is Jimmy Newton of Pinckneyville, Illinois. 11 A n '05 Cobalt. The claim's open date, August 16th,
12 2 0 0 7 , vehicle mileage, 15,000, and the agent notes is 13 s t a l l s ; correct?
14 A . Correct.
P
15 Q . 16 18 I
A n d it says: L " C u s t o m e r states I have a 2005 Cobalt. to find the problem. T h e car dies for no reason.
17 4 11 . L v e had it in the shop several times. They can't

s e e m
19
20
I
t r y
am so unhappy with car. I have talked to dealer and

to work something out. I don't feel safe in the
1 -. v e h i c l e . The car is at the dealer. I am so unhappy. just stalls. I t startled about a month after I bought it." _ %mot
24 25 A . I s Ye s . that what it says?
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1 i s reprogram the sensors, but it is still not fixing 2 t h e problem." 3 D i d 4 A . Ye s . I read that correctly? 1 2 M T R H . E COOPER: 952.
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WITNESS: I know it as CRM, customer
3 r e l a t i o n s manager. 4 B Y MR. COOPER: 5 Q . M a y b e that's what it is. 6 A . I ' m not sure what the CRS means. 7 Q . M a y b e it's just a typo. Anyway: 8 " J u s t wanted to advise you of a vehicle 9 b e i n g brought into your dealership. Possible PAR 10 c a s e . Ongoing issue. Vehicle shuts down completely 11 13 a t random, all systems, including electrical. 12 H a p p e n e d today on highway traveling nearly 80 miles p e r hour." that what it says? 14 I s 15 A . Ye s .
5 Q . A n d at the bottom there, it says: 6 "Customer states I purchased my vehicle in 7 July of 2005. Come November or December, I started 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Ye s . Q. T u r n to tab 79, please. A. O k a y. 79. Q. T h e owner is Tracy Ashman from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, an '06 Cobalt. The claim open date, 9-10-2007. 14,000 vehicle miles. The agent notes is experiencing issues. The vehicle would shut off in the middle of the street while I'm driving. I have been back and forth to the dealership for approximately t e n times approximately. Every time I go back to the dealership, they reprogram the sensors. Before the vehicle would stop, no warning lights will come on, except the vehicle will start making funny noises. The dealership have test driven it but have found nothing, this is because it only happens sporadically. I feel unsafe in the vehicle and do not want to be in it anymore." Did I read that correctly?
16 Q . A n d then at the bottom of the next page, 953: 17 " C u s t o m e r states what now? I don't want 18 t h i s vehicle. I t almost killed her. It's a total 19 l e m o n . The dealer should never have given it back 20 w i t h such a problem if they didn't know how to fix it. 21 T h e semi driver nearly plowed her over." 22 I s 23 A . Ye s . that what it says?
24 Q . T u r n to tab j u s t a moment. 959, the next t h e r e 25 s h o u l d be a tab there.
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 A. stalls; correct? Correct. Q. And then the customer statement: "We don't want this vehicle anymore. We have had this issue since we bought it. The dealer hasn't been able to fix it, and now my daughter is hurt and she could have been killed. Was driving on Highway 80 in Pennsylvania near Lockhaven, driving around 80 miles per hour, when the vehicle completely shut off in the middle of the highway. No emergency lights, no power, no engine, just dead. Thank God she wasn't hit by anything, but she could have. They sent an ambulance and police, so I don't know what is happening yet, but this is unsafe. How do I enact the . r 1 5 l e m o n law?" 16 I I s that what it says? 1 17 A . a a . . j 19 Q p a : if you look at the next page, the bottom of the 1 18 . g Ae nd 20 " C u s t o m e r states just" -- I guess "wanted Ci2. 23 24 t o advise you of a vehicle being brought to your Excuse me. What is CRS? r dealership. Possible PAR" or yeah, "CRS states." M R . FRANKLIN: What is the Bates number on 1 A . S o r r y. 2 Q . I t ' s all right. Right there. Same claim. Owner 3 d e s c r i p t i o n says: 4 " V e h i c l e lost all power, completely shut
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5 d o w n , all systems, including electrical, while driving 6 n e a r l y 80 miles per hour. Driver injured." 7 A n d it says: 8 " M o r e information. Customer has brought to 9 d e a l e r many times regarding random shutdown of 10 v e h i c l e . Says unable to duplicate. No repair 11 c o m p l e t e d . " Then "University clinic sent customer to 12 g e t checked out at the hospital. Doesn't have further 13 i n f o r m a t i o n regarding treatment." 14 I s that what it says? 15 A . That's what it says, yes. 16 Q . T a b 80, please. 17 A . T h e r e is some information on 13955 that k i n d of in 18 t h e middle of the page s a y s : 19 " C u s t o m e r states she went to university and 20 t h e y said couldn't treat her because not university 21 r e l a t e d . Referred her to a hospital, but she didn't 22 g o because she didn't have a car." 23 A n d then "CRS states has she received any 24 t r e a t m e n t or diagnosis?" 25 " N o . "
25 t h a t page? I'm sorry.
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1 2 i O n n the next page, on 13956, it says, about
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
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A. Okay. Q. Tab 82. Jessica Baker is the owner from Cleveland, Ohio. 2006 Chevy Cobalt. Claim open date, 11-8-2007 mileage, 30,013 miles, and again agent notes is stalls. Do you see that? A. Oh, sorry. Yes. says: "Vehicle shuts off completely when driving. Customer states it shuts off when I'm driving, and I have a 14-month-old. It is not safe because another car almost ran into me because it just off in the middle of the road." Is that what it says? A. Ye s . Q. Ta b 83, please. A. 8 3 ? Q. Ye s . Angel Hoyt is the owner from Graysville, Ohio, a 2005 Cobalt. Claim open date of 1-30-2008, vehicle mileage, 33,000, and the agent notes is stalls; correct? A. Correct. "Alleged product allegation. Q. A n d it says here: Q. And then if you look at the center of the page, it
the middle there, "CRS states thank you. You
3 m e n t i o n e d your daughter being injured, but she hasn't 4 b e e n treated yet; is that right?" 5 " Y e s , I think so." 6 " I n order to proceed further, we'll need 7 m o r e specific information. What is the nature of her 8 injury?" 9 " D o n ' t know exact, but she was hurt because 10 11 13 s h e is a small woman and hit the steering wheel when t h e vehicle suddenly stopped because of this problem S o it doesn't look like there is any
12 y o u can't fix." 14 t r e a t m e n t there. Okay. 15 Q . Ta b 80? 16 A . 8 0 . 17 Q . G r a c e Worth, owner from Cape Coral, Florida, 2005 18 C o b a l t . Open claim date, 9-10-2005, mileage, 36,990 19 a n d the agent notes is stalls; correct? 20 A . Correct. 21 Q . A n d the customer states: 22 " I s original owner of a 2005 Cobalt 23 c u r r e n t l y with 36,990 miles. Has been to two 24 d e a l e r s h i p s . Vehicle shuts off while driving. I t 25 s h u t off yesterday in Boone, North Carolina. Has
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 94 25
stalled about eight times, but has been to dealership about three or four times. Is concerned because they are in the mountains, and if the vehicle stalls, they could have an accident." Did I read that correctly? A. Ye s . Q. A n d then tab 81, please. A. O k a y. Q. Ta b 81. Jennifer Barr is the owner from Whitehall, Ohio. It's an '06 Cobalt. Claim open date, 10-29-2007. Vehicle mileage, 30,000. Agent notes, stalls; correct? A. Correct. Q. I t says: 'Vehicle stalls for no reason, customer
Injury/collision. Customer states the ignition and the shifter and the wheel locks up and car shuts off. One week ago I wrecked the vehicle and it is going to cost $5,000, that is how much damage, but I do not have a deductible for my insurance. The dealership didn't want to touch it until you said we are going to do it, and even when I wrecked the car, the airbags didn't deploy. Dealer said that it was in cruise control and there was a bad sensor which caused everything to lock up. My two wrists are bruised and I hit my head, but I have been back and forth to the hospital, and I have insurance for all of that." Did I read that correctly? A. Yes. Q. If you go to the next page, top left: "Customer states I've had it for five months and I've had it in the shop three times now re: the same problem. Shifter in the ignition keeps going -- keeps going bad, steering wheel would lock up, and vehicle would shut off." Is that what it says? A. Yes. Q. It says "It happened again a week ago"; right? A. In the next line, yes. Q. And if you go three more pages to the 965, the owner
16 17 18 19 20
states. Third time to dealer. I t just keeps stalling. O f the record someone told me it is a manufacturer's defect. I'm not putting my child in
the car anymore." Is that what it says? A. Ye s . 11 w 112 i l r u l e i k t h e n the "concern" down there, question mark, is
24 25
t h e "engine shutgLfil." Is that what it says? A. Ye s . Q. Ta b 82, please.
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1 d e s c r i p t i o n , it says they are: 2 " D r i v i n g down the road, the car shut off 3 a n d the wheel locked up and I was making a right turn 4 a n d the vehicle threw me into the ditch on the right 5 s i d e of the road." 6 I s 7 A . Ye s . that what it says?
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1 t o l d customer due to scratch on vehicle made at 2 h i g h w a y , the case should be handled by GM, and until 3 t h i s happens, dealership won't able to fix vehicle nor 4 p r o m i s e any type of rental coverage." 5 I s 6 A . Ye s . that what it says?
7 Q . Ta b 86, please. James Gonzales from River -8 A . Yeah, I'm sorry. I just wanted to clear a few pages. 9 Sorry. 10 O n Bates 13976, at the bottom, there's some
8 Q . T a b 84, please. 9 A . T a b 84? 10 Q . Ye s , sir. Stephanie McCalabe, an owner from 11 C l e v e l a n d , Ohio. It's a 2007 Cobalt, and the agent 12 n o t e s is stalls; correct? 13 A . Ye s . 14 Q . A n d the open date for the claim is August -- excuse 15 m e , March 25th, 2008, and the mileage is 13,563; 16 c o r r e c t ? 17 A . Ye s . 18 Q . A n d it says here: 19 " C u s t o m e r states early Saturday morning she 20 w a s driving up a hill off the freeway to a stoplight 21 w h e n her vehicle stalled on her. Fell backwards, 22 t u r n e d on her towards the left, and was spinning on 23 i c y , snowy roads. She could not turn her steering 24 w h e e l at all. She ended up hitting a pothole or a 25 c u r b and bent her tire."
11 c o m m e n t s from Mike Laing, the service manager: 12 " D e a l e r states that the customer first 13 c o m p l a i n e d about the problem in April 2008. States 14 t h a t on 4-10-2008, they reprogrammed the PCM and the 15 f u e l injector flush and cleared all codes. On April 16 2 1 s t is when the customer had the accident." 17 T h e n they said, CRS -- on the next page, on 18 B a t e s 13977: 19 " G o ahead and repair the vehicle and make 20 s u r e that it does not have any more problems with the 21 e n g i n e . Repair all the body damage on the vehicle. 22 A d v i s e d to also put customer in a rental vehicle." 23 A l l right. 24 Q . Ta b 86. James Gonzales, the owner from Riverview, 25 F l o r i d a , 2006 Cobalt. Claim open date of May 9th,
138
1 I s 2 A . Ye s . that what it says?
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1 2 0 0 8 , mileage, 34,553, and the agent notes stalls? 2 A . Correct. 3 Q . A n d the note from the customer here is: 4 " I would like Chevy to buy back my Cobalt 5 d u e to continuing excessive continuing excessive 6 d e f e c t i v e major parts. I fear for my family and 7 m y s e l f safety because the Cobalt has died many times 8 w h i l e we were driving on a major road interstate. I 9 f e a r the next time will cause a major accident. Every 10 m o n t h is a new problem." 11 D i d I read that correctly? 12 A . Ye s . 13 Q . Tu r n to tab 87, please. 14 A . There are just a few additional comments on Bates 15 2 9 8 3 1 , about in the middle. It says: 16 " C R S asked if customer has any aftermarket 17 i t e m s on the vehicle. Customer states aftermarket 18 i t e m s , GM performance parts Stage 2 performance kit 19 i n s t a l l e d by Bill Heard. Vehicle not in any accident. 20 C R S went over concerns. Problems with the motor. 21 I n t a k e manifold. Fan motor has been repaired three 22 t i m e s . Alternator has been replaced. Not a current 23 c o n c e r n . Clutch has been replaced." 24 A n d then let me get to this other page. On 25 B a t e s 29839, Ann Gonzales -- I believe this is
3 Q . Ta b 85, please. Marilee Dedmon from Winter Park, 4 F l o r i d a , an owner of an '05 Cobalt. Claim open date, 5 A p r i l 24th, 2008. Vehicle mileage, 26,660. Agent 6 n o t e s , stalls; correct? 7 A . Correct. 8 Q . A n d the first paragraph there: 9 " C u s t o m e r states my Cobalt keeps stopping 10 i n the middle of traffic. About ten days ago it that what it says? 11 s t o p p e d on the 408 and the other day on Highway 50." 12 I s 13 A . Ye s .
14 Q . A n d if you go two pages back to page number 968, at the bottom there. Do you see that? It says: 16
17 18 19
I i "Last Monday, April 21st, her husband driving on Highway 50, engine again stopped 41 completely. Customer had no choice but to drive away from the main lane on the highway and went to the side highway, hitting some orange barricades. Customer
20
o f
2, v s e th and on the tire. were Customer's husband was able (1 aitc else some scratches made on the side of the
, 23 2r)
r
I
start the engine on vehicle barely and drive back home . Custome7rla led dealership, Roger Holler, and
25 e x p l a i n e d situation. Service manager over the phone
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1 a t t r i b u t e d to her: 2 " I did receive the message and thank you 1 2 3 t h e l i k e i f
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dealer, they blew me off. I f you could, I would to know if my research is likely to be correct or my symptoms are from another issue. T h i s issue is
3 v e r y much. I really appreciate you guys handling 4 e v e r y t h i n g so quickly and being able to take care of 5 e v e r y t h i n g for us, and I guess we have pretty much 6 h a v e gotten everything in the mail. I f you need 7 a n y t h i n g else, I was going to go ahead and fax it over 8 9 10 12 a o f 11 Q . f o r S awhile. T h e interest statement." o it sounds like maybe they are working on
4 d a n g e r o u s , and I would like to have it fixed. I 5 d i d n ' t expect this when buying a fairly new car from a 6 7 G D M i Ye s . T a b 89, please. O k a y . Ta b 89. T h o m a s Spirting is the owner from Bakersfield, certified location." d I read that correctly?
8 A . 9 Q . 10 A . 11 Q .
repurchase or something like that, so. Okay. T a b 87. Andrea Woods, owner from St. Louis, Missour an '05 Cobalt. Claim open date of 7-18-2008.
12 C a l i f o r n i a . It's a 2007 Cobalt. Claim open date of 13 M a r c h 12, 2009. 14 15 A . 16 Q . 17 D o Ye s . V e h i c l e mileage, 13,009. A n d in the history, it says: product failure. Collision. you see that?
13 V e h i c l e mileage, 44,000. 14 15 A . 16 Q . D o Ye s . A n d at the body of the paragraph: you see that?
17 " C u s t o m e r states that he is calling on 18 b e h a l f of his daughter. S h e has a car with major 19 c o n c e r n s that are life threatening at this point. T h e 20 v e h i c l e just stops in the middle of highway. T h e 21 v e h i c l e is having power steering concerns, fuel 22 i n j e c t o r concerns, CD players, and the key won't fit 23 24 t h e S h e ignition correctly. H i s daughter is very upset. has been working with someone before and the
" A l l e g e d
18 C u s t o m e r states Jane Spirling calling, who is his 19 m o t h e r . S o n got into an accident this morning and 20 f o u n d a TSB about this. W h a t happened was that the 21 v e h i c l e stalled and customer tried to start the 22 v e h i c l e and it did, but it lunged and hit another 23 v e h i c l e . " 24 D i Ye s . d I read that correctly? 25 A .
25 d e a l e r has not a n d not getting anywhere regarding
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1 2 3 4 Y A. e s . T Q.a b 88, please. the concerns." Is that what it says? 1 Q . T u r n to tab 90, please. 2 A . T h e r e is a further description on Bates 14021. 3 " C u s t o m e r states that on 3-12-09 her son 4 w a s driving the vehicle. H e was about to take off
144
5 A . 7
W e l l , the agent notes on that one states "sticks." right. Ta b 88? Ta b 88?
5 f r o m a red light. S h e states that the vehicle then 6 s t a l l e d . Customer was putting vehicle in park to turn 7 i t on again. While doing so, the vehicle launched 8 f o r w a r d and he hit another vehicle. I t was a 4x4. N o 9 i n j u r i e s involved. There was minor damage to both 10 v e h i c l e s . " Okay. 11 Q . T h e n tab 90. Floyd Yenna, owner of a 2006 Cobalt. 12 C l a i m open date of 4-14-2009, vehicle mileage, 13 3 7 , 0 0 0 miles, agent notes here, it just says "quit"; 14 r i g h t ? 15 A . Ye s . 16 Q . A n d then it says in the history here: 17 " C u s t o m e r can't control vehicle. N o steer. 18 N o brake. Customer states we have a 2006 Cobalt. T h e 19 v e h i c l e encountered an accident. T h e dealer said 20 t h e r e was nothing wrong with the car. From there, it 21 s t a r t e d quitting. W h e n it was involved with a second 22 a c c i d e n t early this year. C a r was seriously damaged. 23 V e h i c l e quits and my daughter was driving the car, hit 24 a n o t h e r vehicle. N o one got injured. W e brought it 25 t o the same dealer, and dealer can't find anything.
6 T h a t ' s on that same Bates number, 31103. A Q.l l 8 O A. k a y . 10 A n
9 T iQ. m o t h y Forck, an owner from Jefferson City, Missouri. '05 Cobalt. Claim open date of August 25th, 2008, 11 m i l e a g e 60,000 miles, agent notes is three stalls? 12 A . Y e s . I ' m not sure what the three means, but that's 13 w h a t it says. 14 Q . I understand. A n d the next page, if you go to the next page where it says "Nature of Concern and 16 M e s s a g e " it says: 17 18 19 20 "111111 M 1 y '05 Cobalt has had issues since I bought it from the dealer four months ago. A t times when I drive, the traction control light comes on, as does the power steering light. T h e ABS and brake light blink on and off. T h e power steering assist 2 s h u t s down. T h e car shifts at the wrong times and 430 V a l l s whenarid the have r a k efound s are applied. I have researched that a faulty body control
25 m o d u l e might be the issue, but when I mentioned it to
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1 I t was at the dealer four or five times, twice for the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 a c c i d e n t . I want the vehicle fixed. T h e dealer keeps 3 t e l l i n g me that they fixed it, but it quits. There 4 5 w a s D i Ye s . A n d then if you look at the next page, the bottom, Ye s . 025? Ye s . a police report in both accidents." d I read that correctly?
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not reviewed any of the claims -- any claims documents relating to the power steering or recall? A. I did not. MR. FRANKLIN: L e t me state for the record, as set forth in our notice also, that we objected to producing a witness on those power steering documents, and we set forth the specific Bates ranges because that is not a current allegation in this case. There are no allegations regarding the loss of power steering in the second amended complaint. So those ranges we objected to producing a witness on, and Mr. Hakim is not here to talk about those documents. BY MR. COOPER: Were you involved at all in the power steering recall? Was I involved in it? Yes. You mean when it was initially developed? Yes. A bit, yes. Okay. A n d the reason there was a recall is because General Motors determined there was a safety-related defect related to the power steering in the '05 Cobalt? MR. FRANKLIN: Again, Mr. Hakim is not here
6 A . 7 Q . 9 A . 10 Q . 11 A .
8 w h e r e it says "Customer states"? D o you see that?
12 Q . " C u s t o m e r states daughter was at work beginning of 13 J a n u a r y and the car quit on her. W e took the car to 14 B o w m a n Chevrolet for repair. T h e vehicle was in there 15 16 18 f o r g o t t h e three weeks and she got the car back. When she it back, she noticed when driving two days after dealer and they said there was something wrong
17 g e t t i n g it back that it stalled on her. S h e called 19 w i t h the power, so they went and got the car. They 20 c a l l e d her after a couple of days to pick up the 21 v e h i c l e . W h e n a lady called her, she said there was a 22 c o d e on the computer, but she didn't know what it was. 23 24 25 T h e g o t a n d service tech said he just had to reset it, and she it back, and the car quit on her three more times, each time she called the dealer and they would
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 A. Ye s . (Exhibit No. 4 marked.) L e t me show you what I'll mark as Exhibit 4, which is claims notebook that we've prepared. R R . . COOPER: Harold, you'll have to look on FRANKLIN: Yo u said this is the claims tell her that there was nothing wrong with the car. The last time she was driving down the road when it was snowy and the car died on her while she was driving. She couldn't control the vehicle, and she ended up hitting another vehicle. T h e dealership has been looking at it and they still haven't been able to find anything wrong with the car. A l l I want is the vehicle to be repaired." Did I read that correctly? 1 i n d i v i d u a l l y today. H e ' s here as a corporate
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2 r e p r e s e n t a t i v e to talk about the topics set forth in 3 4 t h e w a n t notice, and we said that in our objection, and I to make that clear.
5 B Y MR. COOPER: 6 Q . 7 A . 8 Q . 9 10 11 i M T n Y o u can answer. G e n e r a l Motors issued a safety recall. Right. Ye s . D i d they determine there was a safety-related defect the power steering of the '05 Cobalt? R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: I f you read the recall
12 B Y MR. COOPER: 13 Q . 14 15 17 a M M
12 n o t i c e , the wording is standard wording from NHTSA 13 s a y i n g that there is a defect in the vehicle. 14 B Y MR. COOPER: 15 Q . A n d what would happen is, for whatever reason, the
16 y c x I r -18 n o t e b o o k ? 19 20 lw M w e i f R . COOPER: Yeah. It's just a notebook so
16 d e f e c t i v e condition, people would lose their power 17 s t e e r i n g -18 M R . FRANKLIN: Object to form. 19 B Y MR. COOPER: 20 Q . 21 22 M T - - under certain circumstances? R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: That's correct, that could
can simply go through these documents and see what anything, he knows about them, and I'll give you
2r number. ,02 0 ) Ye MR.Bates COOPER: 24 Q . I think when we -- at the beginning of the 25 d e p o s i t i o n a m I correct in understanding you have
23 h a p p e n , right. 24 B Y MR. COOPER: 25 Q . T h e y would still have the manual steering, but they
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1 w o u l d lose the power steering? 2 A . T h a t ' s correct. 3 Q . A n d General Motors decided that, if you lose your 2 d i s c o v e r y. 3 B Y MR. COOPER:
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it had the vehicles which are within the scope of the
4 p o w e r steering under certain circumstances, that 5 t h a t ' s a safety hazard; correct? 6 7 M T R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: Well, that recall uses
4 Q . A n d what I'm trying to figure out is, what is tab 1? 5 H a v e you seen the documents in tab 1 before today? 6 A . 7 M I t does not look familiar to me. R . FRANKLIN: L e t me state for the record
8 s t a n d a r d language from NHTSA, right, and it was issuec 9 a s a safety recall. B u t you still have steering and 10 c o n t r o l of the vehicle. 11 B Y MR. COOPER: 12 Q . A n d when the engine stalls like in the cases t h e
8 t h a t that range is not among the ranges set forth in 9 p l a i n t i f f s ' notice. 10 M R . COOPER: Well, it's specifically set 11 f o r t h in subject matter number 5. 12 B Y MR. COOPER: 13 Q . I n reviewing GM's responses, it's our understanding
13 d o z e n s of cases we've been -- here today, for whatever 14 r e a s o n it stalls, when the engine stalls in an '05 15 C o b a l t , the driver is going to lose their power 16 s t e e r i n g , aren't they? 17 A . G e n e r a l l y correct, yes. 18 Q . 19 20 21 23 24 25 i M M M M f A n d you still may be able to answer some questions, so you could turn to tab 1, please. R R R R . . . . FRANKLIN: I need -COOPER: It's Bates numbers 1708 FRANKLIN: W h a t is that document? COOPER: I don't know. It's a document
14 t h e s e are power-steering-related claims. B u t if I 15 u n d e r s t a n d what you are saying, sir, you haven't 16 r e v i e w e d this document before today or these documents 17 b e f o r e today, and you are not prepared to testify 18 a b o u t them; is that correct? 19 A . T h a t ' s correct. 20 21 M w e R . FRANKLIN: A s I've stated before also,
have not produced the witness to talk about power
22 t h r o u g h 1727.
22 s t e e r i n g because that is not a present allegation in 23 t h i s case. 24 B Y MR. COOPER: 25 Q . A n d looking at tab 2, from what we've been able to
t h a t you all produced. I believe it's power steering
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1 complaints. 2 4 5 6 7 9 10 M M M M M M M R R R R R R R . . . . . . . FRANKLIN: I s it within the range of COOPER: Yes. FRANKLIN: f o r this witness? COOPER: Yes. FRANKLIN: S o I'm sorry, tell me one COOPER: 1708 through 1727. FRANKLIN: 1708 through 1727. 3 d o c u m e n t s in plaintiffs' notice -1 d i s c e r n , this is a list of claims, and it has Kenneth 2 D a v i d Melton at the top of it. It's Bates 3 n u m b e r 14832 through 14833. 4 5 6 7 H a v e
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you seen this document before today?
WA.e l l b u t AQ.n d
I'm going to say I'm not sure. It's possible, I didn't review it in detail. do you know anything about the claims that are se
8 m o r e
time--.
8 f o r t h In this document? I assume you know something 9 a b o u t the Melton claim -10 M R . FRANKLIN: L e t me look on -11 B Y MR. COOPER: 12 Q . 13 S because you've talked about that. o I'll ask again. I assume you know
11 B Y MR. COOPER: 12 Q . 13 M H a v e you seen a document -R . FRANKLIN: Hold on a second.
14 B Y MR. COOPER: 15 Q . 16 18 19 M M M H a v e you seen a document like this before? R R R . . . FRANKLIN: Lance, I'm sorry. That COOPER: Right. FRANKLIN: Because that's not in the
14 s o m e t h i n g about the Melton claim, which is the top 15 c l a i m . D o you know anything about the other claims 16 w h i c h were listed in this GM-produced document? 17 I A. ' m going to say it's not familiar, the names are not 18 f a m i l i a r . 19 Q . A n d then go to tab 5, please. A n d I think you
17 i m l u m b e r , you said 1708. A r e you sure, is that it?
20 n o t i c e that I'm looking at in plaintiffs' notice, that d i - . r a n g e . D i d you mean 17908? MR. C O O P : What's that? N o , there's -t i j t a b 5 -- I mean, excuse me, subject matter number 5 24 s t a t e s "All incidents where there was allegedly a loss 25 o f power steering when someone was driving," and then
20 c o n f i r m e d this earlier, but this is the warranty 21 i n f o r m a t i o n that GM has produced relating to the 22 t e c h n i c a l service bulletin work that was done. 23 M R . FRANKLIN: Object to form. 24 B Y MR. COOPER: 25 Q . A n d it's my understanding you haven't reviewed this
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1 d a t a and you are not prepared to testify about these 2 w a r r a n t y claims; is that correct? 3 M R . FRANKLIN: Object to form, and let me 4 a l s o state that the warranty data was not among the 5 r a n g e s set forth in plaintiffs' notice that plaintiff 6 w a n t e d a witness to talk about. 7 B Y MR. COOPER: 8 Q . Yo u can answer the question. 9 A . I think my answer is yes to the question, I'm not 10 p r e p a r e d to I haven't reviewed this. 11 Q . O k a y. And then I saw i f you go to tab 6, these are 12 s o m e technical assistance center documents. What is 13 t h e difference between these documents and the 14 d o c u m e n t s we spent the last couple of hours going 15 o v e r , the individual claims documents? 16 A . These documents are the dealership technician or 17 s o m e o n e from the dealership calling the General Motors 18 s e r v i c e group looking for information on how to handle 19 a repair or problem or issue. 20 Q . Okay. And these documents are all, I guess, GM 21 d o c u m e n t s prepared in the ordinary course of GM's 22 b u s i n e s s ? 23 A . Ye s . 24 Q . A s well as the documents we've been going over in 25 E x h i b i t s 2 and 3?
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1 Q . A n d then page excuse me, tab 12. We were trying tc 2 f i g u r e out what these are, and I think I saw something 3 t h a t you all produced -4 M R . FRANKLIN: What is the Bates number for 5 that? 6 MR. COOPER: 37595 through 37610. 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Q . 14 A . 15 16 Q. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 BY MR. COOPER: Q. A n d what are these? A. These are t h i s is a summary i t looks like it's done in an Excel spreadsheet format f r o m General Motors' CVEP program, which is company vehicle evaluation program. Tell me about the CVEP program. So these would be comments from company vehicle drivers. I think you brought something like that with you today.
A. T h e same thing. Q. Okay. Why did you bring this with you today? A. I thought it was in the Bates range. Q.' S o tell me f o r example, it looks like there's -just this first page, two -- or the plant is Spring Hill, Tennessee. The platform is A. These are for Ions, I believe? A. Ye s .
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1 A . Ye s . 2 M R . FRANKLIN: And for the record, the 3 w i t n e s s did bring some of those tech documents. 4 M R . COOPER: Yeah. We'll attach those to 5 t h e deposition. 6 B Y MR. COOPER: 7 Q . A n d then going to tab 7, it's another list, it looks 8 l i k e , of claims where Kenneth David Melton versus 9 G e n e r a l Motors is the top of the list. It's 'Bates 10 n u m b e r s 133745 through 133751. 11 H a v e you seen this before today? 12 A . I ' m not real -- I'm not familiar with this one. 13 Q . O k a y. Do you know anything about the claims that are 14 l i s t e d in here? 15 M R . FRANKLIN: Let me state for the record, 16 L a n c e , that that range, based on that number that you 17 j u s t read out, that is among the power steering 18 d o c u m e n t s that we objected to in our notice to 19 p r o d u c i n g the witness to talk about. 20 B Y MR. COOPER: d i w Q . D o you know anything about any of these claims? going to say -- I mean I'll just look through here t i a I t o see if anythingamiliar, but. 24 Q . Okay. 25 A . I ' m going to say no, based on what I see. 2 t h e s e ? I guess you've got to go back to -3 A . Yo u have to sort of -4 Q . G o back to T. 5 A . S o r t of line them up, you know.
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1 Q . A n d then what is the problem that's being reported on
6 Q . Okay. So, for example, Bates number 37599, it looks 7 l i k e , at least from what you pulled, there were three 8 i n c i d e n t s involving Ions where.GM employees 9 e x p e r i e n c e d this problem of their knee or something 10 h i t t i n g the key and the ignition turning from run to 11 a c c e s s o r y or run to off? 12 13 M T R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: Right, two of those
14 e x p e r i e n c e d that problem. 15 B Y MR. COOPER: 16 Q . Actually, I want to make sure I think it's all -17 m a y b e I'm misunderstanding it. Let's kind of walk 18 t h r o u g h this. Gerald Young, if you look. He's on 19 3 7 5 9 7 under M. Right? Gerald Young. 20 A . Okay. 21 Q . H e ' s vehicle number 2, and his comment is: 22 " I g n i t i o n switch is too low. The other 23 k e y s and the key fob hit on the drivers right knee. 24 T h e switch should be raised at least one inch toward 25 t h e wiper stock. This is a basic design flaw and
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1 s h o u l d be corrected if we want repeat sales." 2 3 A . 4 Q . 5 i t 6 A . 7 Q . 8 A . 9 Q . 10 11 12 M M T I s Ye s . A n d he is telling GM this as of January 9th of 2004, says "date received"? I would say yes. W h a t page is that on? T h a t ' s the page just before -J u s t before. the verbatim page. R R H . . E FRANKLIN: W h a t is the Bates number? COOPER: 37598. WITNESS: S o yes. that correct? 1 T H E
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WITNESS: I don't believe so. I 2 b e l i e v e these would be those. 3 B Y MR. COOPER: 4 Q . W h e r e would those documents be kept? What departmen 5 w o u l d have control over the CVEP documents? 6 A . W e l l , I think CVEP would. But that was searched to 7 p r o d u c e these documents. 8 Q . W h a t is CVEP w h a t department is CVEP within? 9 A . O h , that I don't know. That I don't know. 10 Q . 11 12 M M T a b 13, if we can go there. R R . . FRANKLIN: What's the -COOPER: This is Bates number 71720
13 B Y MR. COOPER: 14 Q . 16 17 18 20 21 22 24 b D ' O k a y . A n d then the next GM employee, Onassis T h e location of the ignition key was in
13 t h r o u g h 71729, to start with. 14 B Y MR. COOPER: 15 Q . 16 18 19 M M M D o you know what this is? R R R . . . FRANKLIN: Let me see that a quick COOPER: Sure. FRANKLIN: Let me object to questions
15 M a t t h e w s , is driving an Ion, and his comment is: t h e 6 ' 3 " k e y a e i Ye s . general location where my knee would rest. ( I am tall, not many places to put my knee.) O n off with my knee while driving down the road. F o r tall person, the location of the ignition key should moved to a place that will not inadvertently be d I read that correctly?
17 s e c o n d .
19 s e v e r a l occasions I inadvertently turned the ignition
20 a b o u t the document presented, as it is not among those 21 l i s t e d in plaintiffs' deposition notice, and to the 22 e x t e n t o r any documents relating to the FPE 23 i n v e s t i g a t i o n , GM has already produced witnesses and a 24 w i t n e s s who led that investigation. And as stated in 25 t h i s deposition notice, we object to producing, you
23 s w i t c h e d to the off position." 25 A .
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1 Q . A n d his -- GM received his comments or -- yeah, his 1 k n o w , an additional witness to talk about that 2 c o m m e n t s on February 19th of 2004; correct? 3 A . Correct. 4 Q . 6 8 10 " t h e A n A n d then the third person who is driving an Ion or I may have experienced this problem one key to the off position. T h e car started .,. d he reported that on April 15th of 2004;
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2 i n v e s t i g a t i o n , to the extent that the documents being 3 p r e s e n t e d are from that investigation. 4 B Y MR. COOPER: 5 Q . 6 A . 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 H a v e you seen this before today? I have not.
5 t h i r d GM employee is Raymond Smith. H e says: 7 t i m e . I thought that my knee had inadvertently turned 9 i m m e d i a t e l y and the condition has not happened again." 11 c o r r e c t ? 12 A . C o r r e c t . 13 Q . 14l A n d you understand that the ignition switch in the Ion a n d the Cobalt is the same ignition switch? MR. FRANKLIN: Object to form.
r o l 16 1 T H E WITNESS: I believe it is, yes. 1 17 B Y MR. COOPER: 18 Q . A r e you aware that GM did anything in response 19 a n y t h i n g to the Cobalt to redesign the vehicle in 20 r e s p o n s e to these complaints about the problem with Itie l Ue f n ignition not aware, no in the Ion? C l2 .w t lh switch s i l l o I F r r e "'ere any C V E P documents relating to the lo 24 o r the Cobalt? 25 M R . FRANKLIN: Object to form.
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1 Q . A n d again, you don't know what the bold SR numbers 2 m e a n ? 3 A .
5 A .
3 Q . A l l right. So it appears as though there actually are 4 m o r e CVEP complaints than what we talked about in 5 t a b 7? 6 MR. FRANKLIN: Object to form.
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
I do not.
7 1 --
4 Q . T h e n going past 71729 -- it's in the same tab. 6 Q . R i g h t here, in the same tab. We -7 M R . FRANKLIN: One second. Let me look on.
8 B Y MR. COOPER:
THE WITNESS: Well, I don't know. This is for Cobalt. I think what we looked at here was the Ion. BY MR. COOPER: Q. We l l , I think I was specific, but let me be more specific. Have the CVEP complaints for all of the vehicles within the scope of discovery been searched in order to identify the claims that should be produced in this case? MR. FRANKLIN: Object form. THE WITNESS: Well, let me just look here. Yeah, I don't see any in this CVEP for Cobalt, in these documents. BY MR. COOPER: Q. A n d as far as the documents we've just been talking about, and that is Bates number 71720 through 71729, you've never seen these documents before today? A. I ' m not familiar with that, no.
9 Q . There has been a GM confidential document produce. 10 p u r s u a n t to protective order, which I can't figure out 11 w h a t it is, so b u t it appears to be incidents 12 r e l a t i n g to the Cobalt. 13 M R . FRANKLIN: Let me -14 B Y MR. COOPER: 15 Q . D o you know because it says i t identifies the 16 ' 0 5 or the '06 Cobalt in number t a b number 6 there. 17 M R . FRANKLIN: Let me state for the record 18 t h a t to the extent these documents are from or were 19 c r e a t e d during the FPE investigation, I object on the 20 s a m e grounds that have been asserted previously 21 r e g a r d i n g privileged communications in an ongoing 22 i n v e s t i g a t i o n , and would instruct the witness not to 23 a n s w e r if those documents are indeed from that
24 i n v e s t i g a t i o n . I t h e y were not within the range of
25 t h e notice, and at the moment I don't know where
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Q. A n d you are not familiar with any of the claims that 2 a r e -- or incidents that are discussed or addressed in 3 t h i s document; is that correct? 4 A . O h , that I don't know. I mean it's possible some of 5 t h e claims that we went over are in here. So I'm not 6 s u r e how to answer that question. I mean this looks 7 l i k e a spreadsheet of some sort. 8 Q . W e l l , I thought you saictCVEP was GM employees making 9 a complaint; tight? 10 A . Ye s . 11 Q . O k a y. S o the CVEP claims, at least the two here, or 12 r e p o r t s of incidents, those would not be -- have 13 g o n e -- you would not have gone over those today in 14 E x h i b i t s 2 and 3; correct? 111111 16 M I L R . FRANKLIN: Object to form. T H E WITNESS: Correct. Sorry, I didn't
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1 t h o s e documents -- or who generated those documents 2 S o I'm making those objections out of 3 c a u t i o n in the event that they are or that they were.
4 B Y MR. COOPER: 5 Q . 6 A . H a v e you seen this document before today? N o , I'm not familiar with it.
7 Q . D o you know c a n you decipher what it is? 8 A . Other than it looks like a spreadsheet that someone 9 c r e a t e d , no. 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
17 a i l L i n d e r s t a n d your question properly. 19 Q . O k a y. And you don't know -- other than what's written Illi18 B Y MR. COOPER: on Bates number 71721, you don't know anything about -1 w t h e s e two CVEP incidents?
112 110111161o, I do not.

42.30 IF. I n d then Au n d e r Z h a t , there is TV2K. What is 1 24 t h a t ? 25 A . I ' m not familiar with that.
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q. And then "GM CARS," would that be w h a t does that mean when it says "GM CARS" there? MR. FRANKLIN: Object to foundation. THE WITNESS: Yeah, I believe that's like a -- that's the same as CAC, or customer assistance center. BY MR. COOPER: Q. O k a y . A. I think the name has changed to CARS, customer assistance relations center or something like that, or relation services. Q. S o you don't know who would have put this data together, who would have put this analysis together? A. I do not. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 exhibit; right? MR. COOPER: Ta b 14. BY MR. COOPER:
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Q. T a b 15 is the same. I t has some different TREAD data information in here, but it's the same -- I guess your answer would be the same, you don't know anything about this? A. Ye s . MR. FRANKLIN: Object to form. BY MR. COOPER: Q. O k a y. And then tab 16, do you know what this document is? It's basically Bates number 132699 through 132706. A. N o , I'm not familiar with this one. Q. O k a y. And then tab 17, are you familiar with this one? MR. FRANKLIN: What is the Bates number? MR. COOPER: 73222 through 73221. BY MR. COOPER: Q. O r any of the incidents described in here? MR. FRANKLIN: The objections I interposed before apply to all of the documents in this notebook, to the extent they are from the investigation. THE WITNESS: I'm not familiar with this document either.
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 I15 16 17 18 19 20 1 1 w Q . W e won't go suffice it to say, whatever is in here, u don't know tinything about it? ttlijCorrect. % m o t 24 Q . A l l right. 25 M R . FRANKLIN: That was tab 14 of that 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 BY MR. COOPER:
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Q. O k a y. A n d then tabs 18, 37915, these are, from what we understand, at least some of the incidents where GM Cobalts have been in frontal impacts and the airbags have not deployed. Are you familiar with those incidents? O r let me ask you this: Have you reviewed any of those incidents in preparing for your deposition here today? MR. FRANKLIN: And I'm sorry, because I don't have that notebook, I'm going to ask you to read me that Bates number again for tab 18. MR. COOPER: Yeah. Yo u all make them so small here. 5 -- or 37818 through 37921. THE WITNESS: Yeah, these documents are not Bates numbered here. BY MR. COOPER: Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. 0No, you have to go to the one before that. Oh, do you? Yeah. But I'm not familiar with these, this document. Tab 19. Oh, tab 19. Sorry. That's all right. S o you are not familiar with -I don't see a 19. Yeah. I have 18. okay. L e t me see that. W e got shortchanged here one
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1 Y e a h , it should have been right here, so b u t as 2 p a r t of tab 17 in the exhibit, there are, if you look 3 h e r e , incidents where GM Cobalts have been involved in 4 f r o n t a l impact collisions and the airbags have not 5 deployed. 6 7 A n d the question I have for you is: Have y o u are you prepared to testify about those I am not. D o you know anything about those incidents? I do not.
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1 p r o c e s s , and I'm going to tell you I don't know that 2 w h o l e detailed process. B u t I'm sure they'll look at 3 t h e y o u know, they would look at the vehicle 4 c o n d i t i o n , how many times it's been in for a 5 p a r t i c u l a r repair or repairs, and whether there is a 6 r e p a i r available or how y o u know, is the car clean, 7 h o w many miles on it, those kind of things. B u t I 8 w i l l tell you I don't know the whole process. 9 Q . W h e n you look at a body of claims like we've seen 10 t o d a y , is it common for you to see different 11 a p p r o a c h e s taken by different dealerships for similar 12 i s s u e s ?
8 i n c i d e n t s today? 9 A . 10 Q . 11 A .
12 Q . O k a y. 13 15 16 M M M R R R . . . COOPER: That's all the questions I FRANKLIN: Take a break. COOPER: Sure. 14 h a v e . Thank you.
13 A . 14
B o y , again, that's kind of an open-ended question to is it d o I see differences at times? Sure. I of event.
s a y
15 m e a n yeah, because each claim will be its own unique 16 k i n d 17 Q . 19 20 21 i M T t A r e there ever circumstances where you see these R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: I guess I never thought about
17 V I D E O G R A P H E R : We're off the record. 3:33. 18 20 G ( o A brief recess was taken.)
18 d i f f e r e n c e s and those differences concern you?
19 V I D E O G R A P H E R : Back on the record at 3:56. ahead. 21 E X A M I N A T I O N 22 B Y MR. KALFUS: 23 Q . M r . Hakim, my name is Shawn Kens, as you know, and I 24 b e l i e v e you understand that I represent Thornton 25 C h e v r o l e t in this case. I s that right?
that way, so I'm going to say no. I -H a v e there been times when you've seen dealership A
22 B Y MR. KALFUS: 23 Q .
24 p e r f o r m a certain task and dealership B perform a 25 d i f f e r e n t task and thought that they should have done
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1 A . 2 Q . 4 5 W Ye s . O k a y. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today. i t h respect to the claims that you and 1 t h e same thing? 2 A . 4 Q . 6 8 9 11 12 B Y MR. KALFUS: 13 Q . 15 A . 17 Q . W e l l , again, I can't think of anything directly that
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3 I t ' s nice to meet you. M r . Cooper have discussed today -- I believe there
3 c o u l d answer that affirmatively with. W h e n you looked through these 90 cases today with see any circumstances where dealerships varied in . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: A n d that it concerned me? I 5 r e s p e c t to the low-torque admission switch issue, did y o u M T R H 7 t h e i r approaches and that concerned you?
6 w e r e approximately 90 of them -- there seemed to be 7 s o m e inconsistency with the way the dealerships chose 8' 9 10 11 i t M T f o deal with each claim. I s that fair? R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: I mean if you are asking me
10 d o n ' t think so. I mean there were differences, but
they all were the same, I would say no, they
12 w e r e n ' t all the same. 13 B Y MR. KALFUS: 15 c a f'1 4 Q . n A l? l right. H o w do you explain the differences, if you 16 A . W e l l , I guess I don't -- I really can't. I don't know 17 t h a t I can go back and explain, without looking at 19 te r a y ic nhg individual to make some why a particular 1 18 claim assessment and then theon details again and 20 d e a l e r did one thing versus another one. C l w Q . W h a t goes into the decision to repurchase a vehicle a t on goes into theoldecision? There's a whole process J 23 2 . s W e hd customer complaints? 24 t h a t ' s run through what's called the BRC, which is 25 b u s i n e s s resource center, and there is a whole
W e r e there times when you thought that a dealership T h e r e is no way I could make that assessment, just W h o -- is that something that you would do if you had information, or is there somebody else that would
14 s h o u l d have done something differently? 16 r e v i e w i n g those documents. 18 m o r e 20 A . 21
19 m a k e that assessment? W e l l , I would think somebody that would have been at dealership at the time would have been better to
t h e
22 m a k e an assessment like that. 23 Q . I guess what I'm asking, is there anybody at the GM
24 l e v e l that looks -- that overlooks the dealerships and 25 d e t e r m i n e s whether they are doing proper o r taking
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1 t h e proper course of action with issues like this? 2 A . Well, I think that the representatives, like the area 3 v e h i c l e manager or the CRM, would have interaction -4 p r o b a b l y more the AVM -- have interaction with the 5 d e a l e r , looking at what they are doing. 6 Q . A n d those are GM employees; right?
7 A . Ye s .
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1 A . N o , I didn't review that. 2 Q . D o you intend to look into that and offer any opinions 3 d o w n the road? 4 A . I ' m going to say that I don't at the moment. 5 M R . KALFLIS: Those are all the questions I 6 h a v e for you. Thank you, sir. 7 M R . FRANKLIN: Exhibits -8 9 10 M i s M R R . . SISCO: While you are doing that, this FRANKLIN: Yes. Ken, do you have any Ken Sisco. I've been sitting by the phone all day.
8 Q . A n d who at GM corporate would be above those folks? 9 A . Well, again, that's a global question. But that would 10 b e part of the s o r t of the dealership network or 11 w h a t ' s called -- I think it's VSSM or vehicle sales 12 a n d services. I'm not sure what the I forget what 13 t h e M stands for, but that group. Marketing, I think, 14 i s what the M stands for. 15 AQ.l l right. And that's based here Detroit in the 16 h e a d q u a r t e r s ? A. 17 I can't tell you -- I'm sure there are some folks here 18 i n the Detroit area, but there are probably folks all
19 o v e r the world.
11 q u e s t i o n s ? 12 M R . SISCO: No, I don't have any questions. 13 T h a t ' s why I took myself off mute and just put that on 14 t h e record for you before you redirect your client. 15 M R . FRANKLIN: Okay. Thank you. 16 ( D i s c u s s i o n held off the record.) 17 ( E x h i b i t A marked.) 18 M R . FRANKLIN: Mr. Hakim, I know that it's 19 b e e n a long day. I've got a couple of areas that I 20 w o u l d like to go over with you, and before I get 21 s t a r t e d , I do want to make -- enter as part of the 22 r e c o r d the objections, General Motors' amended 23 o b j e c t i o n s to plaintiffs' amended notice of taking 24 3 0 ( b ) ( 6 ) deposition. I previously talked about this 25 o b j e c t i o n . I just want to make it a part of the
20 D Q. o e s GM do anything to ensure or to encourage 21 d e a l e r s h i p s to handle similar circumstances similarly? 22 M R . FRANKLIN: Object to form. 23 T H E WITNESS: Well, so t h e only way I 24 c o u l d answer that is, when we produce a service 25 b u l l e t i n , for instance, that provides some direction
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1 2 o n handling a particular issue or concern. And then w e have TAC, of course, which is the technical
1 r e c o r d , so I'll enter that. 2 E X A M I N A T I O N 3 B Y MR. FRANKLIN:
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3 a s s i s t a n c e center, so that a dealership can call for 4 assistance. 5 B Y MR. KALFUS: 6 Q . S o the TSBs and the phone numbers are there to 7 e n c o u r a g e dealerships to handle situations 8 c o n s i s t e n t l y ; would that be true? 9 A . Well, I think that's one of the results. I think they 10 a r e there to help, in essence. You know, if there is 11 a particular problem, a TSB is issued to help a dealer 12 d i a g n o s e a problem, right, so that they know where to 13 l o o k and they can resolve the issue quicker. Q. A r e there any other methods that GM corporate would use to communicate with their dealerships to make sure 16 t h a t they are all on the same page? 17 A . I r n not familiar. There could be, certainly, with 18 t h a t group, but I can't tell you any other, beyond 19 w h a t I know, yeah. 20 Q . D o you have any criticisms about the way Thornton Chevrolet handled Brooke Melton's service and repair? II2 I I tell you, I'm not familiar with how they handled 23 i t , so don't have an criticisms. 24 Q . A l l right. You don't a r e you familiar with 25 a n y t h i n g that Thornton Chevrolet did in this case?
4 Q . M r . Hakim, you have been asked today during the course 5 o f this deposition questions about numerous claims of 6 i n c i d e n t s that have occurred in the field where there 7 h a v e been reports written by folks at GM, both CAC 8 d a t a and also TAC files and other files. 9 10 11 12 D o G f M i d you have an opportunity to review much
the production from this case? Are you aware that has produced, obviously, all of the documents that have been presented with today, in addition to
y o u
13 m a n y others? 14 A . Ye s . 15 Q . O k a y. And in terms of your area of testimony today, 16 h a v e you seen this amended -- these amended objections 17 t o plaintiffs' deposition notice before today? 18 A . Ye s . 19 Q . O k a y. And in terms of the area t h e areas of 20 t e s t i m o n y , does this accurately reflect the areas that 21 y o u have testified about today and that you were 22 p r e p a r e d to testify about today? 23 A . Ye s . 24 Q . S o is it fair to say that the claims that you brought
25 w i t h you today come from -- they are taken from the
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set of Bates ranges that were identified in this
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1 A . I s there any indication? 2 Q . Right. Is there anything in any of those documents 3 t h a t states that the key went from the run to 4 a c c e s s o r y position? In the documents that you have 5 b r o u g h t with you today and the ones that you were 6 p r e s e n t e d with, do you w e r e there any that you saw 7 t h a t specifically said that, that the key went from 8 t h e run to accessory position? 9 A . Well, there were some where the customer said that 10 t h e y y o u know, that they t h a t the vehicle 11 s t a l l e d . 12 Q . Right. 13 A . A n d then in some cases, when the evaluations were 14 d o n e , in essence, there were -- most of them were 15 " c o u l d not duplicate the problem," but some referenced 16 t h e key as a possible method or a possible way. 17 Q . S o in some of those, as I recall, and you'll recall 18 f r o m earlier, there were some in which it was stated 19 t h a t someone's knee interacted with the key, the 20 i g n i t i o n area where the key is inserted; correct? 21 A . Ye s . 22 Q . Okay. But in many others -- in fact, in most of 23 t h e m -- there was no indication that that is what had 24 h a p p e n e d ; correct? 25 A . Well, that's correct, yes.
deposition notice? A. Yes. Q. Okay. And I won't ask you to do the math, but I'll represent to you, just by looking at the Bates numbers, that if you were to even do, you know, very basic calculations, that they i t ' s over 32,000 pages that comprise the production of other claims, incidents, et cetera. Is that consisted with your understanding, based on what you've seen and kind of what you have reviewed as well? A. Q. Makes sense. In just about all, if not all of the claims that you were asked about today, they involve incidents of vehicles stalling; correct? A. Correct. Q. Okay. Tell us in terms of how i n terms of a vehicle stalling, what are the reasons that a vehicle can stall? Are there many reasons? A. Q. A. Oh, you mean, in general, how could a vehicle stall? That's right. It could run out of gas, cause stalling. There could be just some grounding problem or electrical problem that could cause the vehicle to stall. You could have
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
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1 a problem with the throttle, throttle body, could 2 c a u s e a vehicle to stall. Problem with the generator 3 o r alternator could cause a vehicle to stall. Battery 4 p r o b l e m , in conjunction with a generator problem, 5 c o u l d cause a vehicle to stall. Just a stick shift 6 v e h i c l e , just driver error operating the vehicle, you 7 k n o w , putting the clutch out too quickly, could cause 8 a vehicle to stall. I mean those are a few things 9 t h a t come to mind. 10 Q . O k a y. Are you aware that in this case the allegation 11 i s that the vehicle's key rotated from the run 12 p o s i t i o n to the accessory position? Is that your 13 u n d e r s t a n d i n g about the allegations in this case? Q. Okay. Is that something that could cause a vehicle to P I A . Ye s . 16 s t a l l ? I17 A . Le.go 18 Q . B u t again, it is one of the many potential causes of 19 t h e vehicle stalling; correct? 20 A . Ye s . (1 in the claims that you were presented today, that 2, Q i. A i nd were able to relliew today during your deposition, 23 w a s there an indication in any of them that the 24 v e h i c l e stalled because the key rotated from the run 25 t o accessory position? 2 c o m i n g from under the hood; correct? 3 A . Ye s .
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1 Q . Okay. Some of them o n e of them talked about smoke
4 Q . A n d others talked about the vehicle shaking or the key 5 b e i n g stuck in the ignition. Do you recall -6 A . I do. 7 Q . - - seeing all types of scenarios? 8 A . Ye s . 9 Q . Okay. So you would agree that there is not, within 10 t h o s e documents, evidence as to one particular cause 11 f o r the stalling event; that there are many different 12 s c e n a r i o s that could have caused any of those events? 13 A . True. 14 Q . T h e stalling events. Is vehicle stalling anything 15 t h a t is unique to a particular make and model vehicle? 16 A . Geez, I guess that's kind of a global question. I 17 s u p p o s e it's possible for any vehicle to stall. 18 Q . I n terms of the frequency of a stalling event for one 19 p a r t i c u l a r vehicle -- type of vehicle versus another, 20 o r for one manufacturer versus another, do you have 21 a n y knowledge as to whether or not the Chevy Cobalt 22 s t a l l e d more or less than a vehicle manufactured by 23 a n o t h e r company or another vehicle within GM's 24 i n v e n t o r y ? Do you have any sense as to whether there 25 w a s more stalling with the Cobalt than other vehicles,
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1 b y other manufacturers or by GM? 2 A . I don't. 3 Q . A r e you generally familiar with the Melton accident in 4 t e r m s h a v e you seen the police report from the 5 M e l t o n accident before? 6 A . Ye s . 7 Q . Okay. Are you generally familiar with this crash in 8 t e r m s of, you know, whether the vehicle was on a 9 r o a d w a y and whether it interacted with another 10 v e h i c l e , speeds and that kind of thing? Are you 11 g e n e r a l l y familiar with that? 12 A . Ye s . 13 Q . W h a t is your general understanding about this crash? 14 A . T h a t a crash occurred, I believe, in the Atlanta area 15 o n a highway. I think it was a two --I guess I don't 16 r e m e m b e r if it was a two-lane highway. But I remember 17 t h a t it was raining. I remember the police report 18 s a i d raining or wet conditions and that t h a t the 19 M e l t o n vehicle crossed over the -- from their lane of 20 t r a v e l a n d I don't recall north or south, but 21 c r o s s e d over from their lane of travel. And I believe 22 t h e police report thought the vehicle was traveling 23 t o o fast for the conditions, were the general comments 24 i n the police report; may have hit hydroplaned or 25 h i t some water, crossed over, and then was struck by
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these 32,000 approximately 32,000 pages of 2 d o c u m e n t s -- or pages, rather, were produced in this 3 c a s e . 4 Y o u mentioned that you are generally 5 f a m i l i a r with the searches that were done, and I 6 b e l i e v e you stated you believed that those searches 7 w e r e reasonable. 8 A . Ye s . 9 Q . W e r e they broad? 10 A . Ye s . 11 Q . H o w ? 12 A . H o w ? Well, I thought I w e l l , earlier I think the 13 q u e s t i o n was asked, but there were broad search terms 14 u s e d . So the scope or the scope of the matter that 15 w a s already predetermined was used as the scope, and 16 t h e n very broad search terms were used, which include( 17 s t a l l , engine, I think electrical, ignition, all those 18 t e r m s that would try and bring up as many documents as 19 p o s s i b l e . 20 Q . A n d those searches were done in -- I take it were they 21 d o n e in databases where GM would ordinarily keep 22 d o c u m e n t s relating to customer complaints or 23 c o m p l a i n t s or inquiries coming in from dealerships? 24 A . Ye s . 25 Q . Okay.
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1 t h e other vehicle on the passenger side. 2 M R . COOPER: Object to the responsiveness. 3 B Y MR. FRANKLIN: 4 Q . W i t h the claims and incidents that you have reviewed 5 a n d that you've been asked about today, do you -- did 6 7 8 9 y o u see any of them that involved an allegation that t h e key rotated from run to accessory that caused the l o s s of control of a vehicle resulting in a crash? A . No. 1 A . Yo u said in from dealerships. You know, from
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2 d e a l e r s h i p s , but also from customers, right, so. 3 Q . Correct. Okay. Let me ask you -- I'm going to ask 4 y o u to turn to tab 9 in Exhibit 2. This is the Ray 5 A r j o n a case. 6 7 M M R R . . KALFUS: Bates number, please? FRANKLIN: Bates number 18254.
8 B Y MR. FRANKLIN: 9 Q . Yo u were asked earlier about, you know, the fact 10 t h a t i n terms of your review of these claims and 11 i n c i d e n t s , and the fact that you brought some 12 d o c u m e n t s with you today, you were asked specifically 13 a b o u t this one at that Bates number that I just read, 14 a n d I believe you testified that this one, I believe, 15 d i d not involve the loss of control. Is that correct? 16 17 I s a t that your understanding? Take your time and look it.
10 Q . I ' m going to ask you to look at -- we're going to go 11 t h r o u g h some of the claims from Exhibit 2 and 12 E x h i b i t 3, those two notebooks. 13 A . D o e s this go back somewhere? '14 Q . Ye a h , you can just leave it right there. Thank you. D o you recall in these claims that you saw ( 15 16 t h a t talked about customers going to dealerships and bringing forward their concerns that the dealerships 18 t r i e d repeatedly to duplicate the concerns or the 1 17 19 c o n d i t i o n s that the customers were complaining about? 20 A . Ye s , I believe in a lot of the actually, probably C 1-* e mmajority, but I can't sayto that, there were a lot 2 a tt h te p t s by the ckalers duplicate the concern. t t l i j ' Y o u were asked eviler about -- and I want to have you 24 j u s t kind of walk us through generally about your 25 u n d e r s t a n d i n g about GM's efforts to -- in terms of how
18 A . Right, I don't see anything in here about loss of 19 c o n t r o l . 20 Q . Okay. Let me ask you to go to tab number 12. This 21 i n v o l v e d a 2005 Chevy Cobalt. It's the Elsie Garrison 22 c l a i m , tab number 12 from Exhibit 2. And you were 23 a s k e d -- or you were read portions of this document, 24 a n d I want to ask you to look at page 18294. 25 A . Okay.
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1 Q . A n d this appears to be the last entry from this claim, 2 s o we have a history here of when the complaint or 3 w h e n the incident was first brought to the attention 4 o f someone at GM, and it walks you through the 5 c o m m u n i c a t i o n s , and I'd like -- you were asked about 6 s o m e of the earlier communications about the vehicle 7 stalling. 8 I ' d like you to read from page 18294, the 9 l a s t entry that's in all caps there, and it appears to 10 b e dated August 11, 2005. I t says: 11 " N o t available. Attempted to contact the 12 c u s t o m e r , but was advised by the mother that she is 13 n o t available." 14 D o you see where it says there that the CRM 15 a d v i s e d of the reason for the call, and the mother 16 r e s p o n d e d that 'Things are going very well with the 17 v e h i c l e and there are no concerns at this time"? 18 A . Ye s , I see that. 19 Q . O k a y. Based on that, is it your view that the 20 p e r s o n ' s complaints or concerns were resolved? 21 A . I t sounds that way, yes. 22 Q . Please go to tab number 17. This is Bates 23 n u m b e r 18338, and this is the Nathan Hill incident. 24 L e t me know when you are there. 25 A . Ye s , I'm there.
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1 v e r y hot because that is the only time when the 2 v e h i c l e will die out." 3 D o 4 A . Ye s . you see that?
5 Q . D o e s that appear to be consistent with the other -6 t h e complaints or incidents about a vehicle stalling 7 w h i l e someone is driving? 8 A . A r e you saying could that cause a vehicle to stall, in 9 e s s e n c e , a problem -10 Q . Ye s -11 A . with temperature and maybe -12 Q . excessive heat, right. 13 A . Could be, yes. 14 Q . I s that an issue that would be consistent with 15 a n y t h i n g about the ignition switch and, you know, 16 r o t a t i o n of the ignition switch in terms of heat, or 17 i s that a separate -18 A . That's a separate issue, of course. Yeah, this would 19 p r o b a b l y be more related to fuel or fuel lines. 20 Q . D o you see here on page 18340, towards the middle o 21 t h e page, "Dealer states that the EBTCM" i t goes 22 o n , but let's look at the second sentence. 23 " D e a l e r states that the cruise control is 24 a l s o not working, and this may be connected to the 25 E B T C M and a no start."
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1 Q . O k a y. You were asked questions and read portions of 2 t h i s report as well. I'd like to ask you -- at least 3 i t appears that this -- the vehicle t h a t there were 4 a lot of issues regarding -- or a lot of complaints 5 a b o u t this vehicle from the customer, and you were 6 a s k e d about the stalling. 7 B u t I want to ask you whether or not, 8 l o o k i n g - a t that work history number right in the 9 m i d d l e of page 18338, do you see where it says: 10 " T h e lights came on in the dash. The 11 v e h i c l e shakes at times. Can't drive over 30 miles 12 p e r hour. The air conditioning blows warm. A new 13 c o m p u t e r chip was installed." 14 D o A. Ye s . you see that?
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1 D o you know what the EBTCM is? 2 A . I ' m sorry, you'll have to get me to your spot there. 3 Q . I ' m sorry. Page 18340. 4 A . I have that. 5 Q . A n d if you go down to the paragraph beginning with D6 r-s-t-s. 7 A . O h , okay. 8 Q . D o you see that? 9 A . Ye s . 10 Q . T h e second sentence, "Dealer states that the cruise 11 c o n t r o l is also not working, and this may be connected 12 t o the EBTCM and no start." 13 D o 14 A . Ye s . you see that?
15 Q . Okay. What does that mean, if you know? 16 A . We l l , I think that that there's a typo in there. 17 I t ' s probably EBCM. 18 Q . Okay. 19 A . I t probably doesn't need the T, and that would be the 20 e l e c t r o n i c brake control module. 21 Q . Okay. Let me ask you to go to tab 18, Bates number 22 1 8 4 5 4 . 23 A . Okay. 24 Q . T h i s is for an '05 Cobalt. Let me ask you to go to 25 p a g e 18456. You were read certain portions of this
16 Q . T h e next page, 18339, the first full paragraph, 17 411,a)ealer states gets hot outside, vehicle will not 18 19 s t a r t . " Do you see that? 20 A ' . Yes. Q. A n d further down, there is a paragraph that says eater states that At really doesn't have any more 23 i n f o to provide.24 There's another sentence there, "Dealer 25 s t a t e s that he can only work on the vehicle when it is
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1 i n c i d e n t , and I'm going to ask you to go to the -2 n e a r the bottom of page 18456 where it says "Dealer 3 s t a t e s believes customer" -4 D o you see that? 5 A . Ye s , I see that. 6 Q . "Dealer states believes customer is being coached on 7 h o w to get vehicle repurchased because he instructed 8 t h e customer to call the dealer and have vehicle towed 9 i f concern came up again, but customer did not call or 10 h a v e vehicle towed, and there was another time that 11 t h e customer called when the concern came up and the 12 d e a l e r told customer to have the vehicle towed in 13 r i g h t away, but the customer did not have the vehicle 14 t o w e d and just drove it to the dealer." 15 D o 16 A . I do. you see that?
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1 Q . Please turn to tab 23. Let me know when you are 2 there. 3 A . I ' m there. 4 Q . Okay. You were asked about this incident, and you 5 w e r e read certain portions of this report. I want to 6 d i r e c t your attention to 18639. 7 A . Okay. 8 Q . Looking kind of halfway, the halfway mark on the page, 9 y o u ' l l see a notation about: 10 " T h e car broke down. Customer states 11 i d l i n g was rough and around 2 to 3 and a bit over. 12 W e n t down to 1,000. Just broke down in his driveway 13 a n d had reduced engine light come on. When he time( 14 t h e key and it would not start and the car started to 15 c l i c k . " 16 D o 17 A . Ye s . you see that?
17 Q . Okay. Is it your opinion, based on tab number 18, 18 t h a t the dealer was attempting to do all they could to 19 a s s i s t the customer to find out what was wrong? 20 A . We l l , it appears that way, that they were trying to 21 g e t the vehicle in, and I think the last sentence 22 t h e r e says "Customer does not need appointment, just 23 b r i n g vehicle in," and they were trying to duplicate 24 t h e issue. 25 Q . A n d were they able to?
18 Q . I n looking further down, do you see that the dealer 19 s t a t e s "Bad cell in the battery and was replaced and 20 e v e r y t h i n g was fine and took for test drive and car 21 r u n n i n g fine"? 22 D o 23 A . Ye s . you see that?
24 Q . Okay. Is it your understanding from this, now that 25 I ' v e read other portions of this report, that the
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1 A . We l l , I don't know. I'll have to read the rest of 2 t h i s . 3 Q . Okay. And you know what, the document says what it 4 d o e s , so don't worry about that. 5 L e t me direct your attention to page 18459, 6 a n d it's above the top third of the page, "Dir advised 7 v e h i c l e has aftermarket remote start and alarm." 8 D o you see that? 9 A . I see that. 10 Q . " T h e module for the remote start and alarm did not 11 a d a p t to the new cylinder, so the vehicle is now at 12 t h e alarm company now for service. Diagnosis is that 13 t h e aftermarket module caused the issue. Is going to wait for the vehicle to get back from the alarm company. Then dealer is going to inspect to make sure 16 i t ' s working properly." 1711111 1 1 B a s e d on this, is it your understanding 18 t h a t the dealer found that the alarm t h i s 19 a f t e r m a r k e t alarm could have had an effect or could 20 h a v e been causing the problem here? ( 12 .. . T M HR E COOPER: to the form. WITNESS:Object Well, it sounds that way, or 2 battery? 3 M R . 4 T H E
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1 v e h i c l e problems were a result of a bad cell in the COOPER: Object to the form. WITNESS: That's what it looks like,
5 y e s . 6 B Y MR. FRANKLIN: 7 Q . Looking at tab 24. So let me direct your attention tc 8 p a g e 18741, and I'm sorry, this involves an '05 9 C o b a l t . This is the Arthur Ledoux incident. And I 10 w a n t to direct your attention to page 18741, looking 11 a t "Customer Primary Symptoms or Concerns." 12 D o you see there on August 5th, 2005, 13 " C o u l d not duplicate stall concern, road tested, 14 w o r k i n g as designed"? 15 D o 16 A . Ye s . you see that?
17 Q . A n d then following that, do you see that "Replaced 18 i g n i t i o n switch housing"? Do you see that entry on 19 A u g u s t 12th, 2005? 20 A . Ye s . 21 Q . A n d then after that on September 15th: 22 " C u s t o m e r states vehicle shuts off when 23 d r i v i n g . No codes. All systems operating as normal. 24 A l l 25 D operating according to GM specs." o you see that?
420) t sounds like thelaslink it affects the ignition in 24 s o m e way. 25 B Y MR. FRANKLIN:
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1 A . Ye s . 2 Q . A n d on January 31st, 2006, "Installed key support 3 cover." 4 I s it your understanding w h a t is your 5 u n d e r s t a n d i n g about what that means, the key support 6 cover? 7 A . I believe that that's a plastic insert that changes 8 t h e key from a slot to a hole. 9 Q . D o you see, following that key insert work being done 10 o n January 31st, 2006, that there were no more o n 11 t h i s case assessment form, there are no more 12 r e f e r e n c e s to t h e r e are other issues with the 13 v e h i c l e in terms of the heating and air and a 14 h e a d l i g h t issue, but there are no more complaints or 15 i n c i d e n t s of stalling? 16 A . Okay. So you are saying after -- after the 1-31 date? 17 Q . Ye s . 18 A . 1-31-06? 19 Q . Ye s , looking along the history in terms of concerns. 20 A . We l l , I agree there's no other stalling or that kind 21 o f issue, if that's what your question is, after that. 22 Q . O k a y. Tab number 34 is the Anatoleu Bekrev incident 23 i n v o l v i n g a 2005 Cobalt. 24 D o you see that? 25 A . We l l , I'll get there in a second. 1 A . O k a y. Yes.
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2 Q . There is a discussion about a buyback, and it says: 3 " I t has been determined that the vehicle 4 h a s been ran at low fuel levels. This could be a 5 c a u s e for concern for the engine stalling. Sufficient 6 g a s pressure is necessary to push gas into the engine. 7 L o w gas levels will not cause ample pressure to push 8 g a s down the lines." 9 A n d then later it talks about, after this, 10 t h e dealer was not able to duplicate the concerns. 11 I s it your understanding, from looking at 12 t h i s , that that is what was suspected in terms of this 13 v e h i c l e ' s stalling, that it was due to insufficient 14 f u e l or low gas pressure? 15 16 M T R H . E COOPER: Object to the form. WITNESS: Well, I think all I can tell
17 y o u is that, you know, that was raised as an issue, 18 r i g h t , so that they suspected that that could be a 19 c a u s e . 20 B Y MR. FRANKLIN: 21 Q . Okay. 22 V I D E O G R A P H E R : One minute. 23 M R . FRANKLIN: Okay. Do you want to switch 24 t h e tape? 25 V I D E O G R A P H E R : This complete disc three.
194
1 Q . Okay. Take your time. 2 A . Okay. 3 Q . T h i s one involves -- at least the allegation is that 4 t h e vehicle would cut off sporadically while sitting 5 a t a stoplight or stop signs or while driving. 6 D o you see that? 7 A . Ye s . 8 Q . S o if a vehicle is -- in terms of your understanding 9 a b o u t the allegations in this lawsuit that, you know, 10 t h e key went from run to accessory while someone was 11 d r i v i n g , if someone is sitting at a traffic light, 12 w o u l d you expect the key to be able to rotate from run 13 t o accessory and cause a vehicle to stall while 14 s i t t i n g in a parked -- or at a traffic light or a stop sign? 16 A .
I 17
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1 W e are off the record at 4:39. 2 ( D i s c u s s i o n held off the record.) 3 V I D E O G R A P H E R : Back on the record at 4:41. 4 T h i s is disc four of the deposition of GM corporate 5 r e p Victor Hakim. Please proceed. 6 B Y MR. FRANKLIN: 7 Q . Please skip to tab number 88, and that may be in the 8 n e x t notebook.: I'm not sure. 9 M R . COOPER: It is. 10 B Y MR. FRANKLIN: 11 Q . I ' m sorry, 89. Please go to 89. 12 A . A t least you didn't get me back the other way. 13 Q . Ye a h . It's Bates number 14019. 14 A . Okay. 15 Q . Yo u were asked about this one earlier. This is the 16 T h o m a s Spirling incident. And there was a lot of -17 t h e r e were references to the vehicle lurching forward 18 19 o r I launching forward. n terms of your understanding about what
18
I guess I don't know. I hadn't thought about it. I suppose you -- there would have to be some movement. 4lem I t seems inconsistent.
19 Q . Please go to page 19314, and you were read portions of 20 t h i s report, and I want to direct your attention to there is an entry there towards the bottom of the ge. It's the full pAgraph right before the bottom : I L ) l i t h e page. In other words, right here. It says 24 " D a n t e Groomes," and this looks like it's -- I guess 25 t h a t ' s November 8, 2005?
20 h a p p e n s when a vehicle stalls, is that something that 21 y o u would expect, for a vehicle to lurch or to move 22 f o r w a r d when it is stalling, or is that a different 23 c o n d i t i o n ? 24 A . N o , I w h e n I saw this, it looked a little 25 i n c o n s i s t e n t or something else was going on when it
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1 3 w h e n S o the statement here is that it " H e tried it seemed a little inconsistent. I t BY MR. COOPER: 2 s t a r t i n g the vehicle, and then it lunged forward." doesn't seem to quite make sense with stalling. 5 Q . O k a y . A n d again, in none of y o u ' v e kind of talked 6 a b o u t the many different potential causes of a vehicle 7 s t a l l i n g , and that in -- of all these that have been 8 p r e s e n t e d to you today and that you've reviewed, the 9 a c t u a l cause of the stalling incident, including, you 10 k n o w , a grounding issue in terms of the electrical 11 c u r r e n t or the throttle body or the generator or 12 a l t e r n a t o r or the battery, or run to accessory or what 13 h a v e you, any of those are potential causes of the 14 s t a l l i n g in any of these claims that you've seen; 15 c o r r e c t ? 16 17 M T R H . E COOPER: Object to the form. WITNESS: C o u l d be, sure.
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2 Q . A n d from the claims we saw today I ' l l tell you that 3 B r o o k e Melton bought her vehicle from Bill Heard 4 C h e v r o l e t on August 31st of 2005. And from the claims 5 7 8 w e saw today, there were over 2,000 incidents, just vehicle. e you aware that before August 31st of 6 w i t h these claims, before GM or Bill Heard sold Brooke h e r A r
9 2 0 0 5 , even though GM was aware of all these claims, it 10 c h o s e not to fix the problem with the ignition switch 11 12 13 i n M T the vehicle? R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: I haven't researched any of
14 t h a t . So I guess I don't know the answer to that 15 q u e s t i o n . 16 B Y MR. COOPER: 17 Q . A r e you aware of whether GM ever chose to warn Brooke 18 a b o u t the problem with Cobalt stalling before Bill 19 H e a r d sold her the Cobalt on August 31st of 2005? 20 A . N o , I have no knowledge one way or the other on that 21 q u e s t i o n . 22 Q . 23 M D o you think they should have? R . FRANKLIN: Object to form.
18 B Y MR. FRANKLIN: 19 Q . 20 i s I n fact, in these incidents that you've looked at, i t not known in most instances what caused the I believe that's true. R R . . FRANKLIN: I appreciate your time. I COOPER: J u s t a couple of follow-ups.
21 s t a l l i n g incident; correct? 22 A . 23 24 25 M M
h a v e
no further questions for you.
24 B Y MR. COOPER: 25 Q . I f they know about a problem with the vehicle
198
1 R E - E X A M I N A T I O N 2 B Y MR. COOPER: 3 Q . 4 5 6 b M T A s we saw from the claims today, vehicle stalling car e H a dangerous condition, can't it? R . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: A l l right. S o as a general 1 s t a l l i n g , shouldn't they tell her about it? 2 3 M T R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: Now, again, I can't in
200
4 g e n e r a l , I can't answer a question like that, so I -5 B Y MR. COOPER: 6 Q . A r e you aware, as of today, GM has still chosen not to 7 8 9 f i x M T R H t h e problem with the ignition switch? . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: I guess I'm not sure how to
7 k i n d
of question, I don't know that I can make that
8 a s s e s s m e n t . Yo u said from the claims that we saw 9 t o d a y . S o I don't know that I can make that 10 a s s e s s m e n t , you know, in that way. 11 B Y MR. COOPER: 12 13 Q. A. Well, can vehicle stalling be a dangerous situation? In the way you ask the question, you say can it be. In general, stalling -- in general, you can control the vehicle. Yo u still have braking and steering. S o 16 i t ' s -- I suppose there could be instances, but I I 17 c a n ' t say in general that that's, you know, always the 18 c a s e . 19 Q . S o I just want to make sure I understand your is never a dangerous situation? MR. FRANKLIN: Object to form. 231 THE WITNESS: N o , certainly I wouldn't say that. I would say, you know, it has to be assessed,
10 a n s w e r that question. I know there is a service 11 b u l l e t i n and there is y o u know, there is a change 12 m a d e to the key. B u t beyond that, I don't know. 13 B Y MR. COOPER: 14 Q . Ye a h , my question was more specific to the ignition 15 s w i t c h . 16 A r e you aware that, as of today, GM has
17 s t i l l chosen not to fix the problem with the ignition 18 s w i t c h ? 19 20 21 M T R H . E FRANKLIN: Object to form. WITNESS: Yeah, I'm not real familiar
20 t e s t i m o n y . I s it your testimony that vehicle stalling
w i t h it.
22 B Y MR. COOPER: 23 Q . A n d are you aware that before Brooke's accident whict
24 r e s u l t e d in her death, GM chose to never warn her 25 a b o u t the problem of the vehicle stalling due to a
25 r i g h t , and each case would be different.
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1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
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1 D E P O S I T I O N ERRATA SHEET 2 3 4 O u r Assignment No. 442432/378398 5 C a s e Caption: Melton vs. General Motors, et al.
6 7
defective ignition switch? MR. FRANKLIN: Object to form. THE WITNESS: No, again, I can't answer that question one way or the other. I don't know. MR. COOPER: No further questions. Thanks. VIDEOGRAPHER: This will complete today's deposition of corporate representative Victor Hakim. We are off the record at 4:50. (Exhibit No. 5 marked.) (The deposition was concluded at 4:50 p.m.)
8 D E C L A R A T I O N UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
I declare under penalty of perjury that I have read the entire transcript of my Deposition taken in the captioned matter or the same has been read to me, and the same is true and accurate, save and except for changes and/or corrections, if any, as indicated by me on the DEPOSITION ERRATA SHEET hereof, with the understanding that I offer these changes as if still under oath.
Signed on the
d a y
of
VICTOR HAKIM
202
1 S t a t e of Michigan ) 2 C o u n t y of Wayne )
3 1 D E P O S I T I O N ERRATA SHEET 2 P a g e No. L i n e No. C h a n g e to: 3
4 5 6
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certify that this transcript is a
Reason for change: Page No. L i n e No. C h a n g e to:
5 c o m p l e t e , true, and correct record of the testimony of 6 t h e witness held in this case. 7 I also certify that, prior to taking this 8 d e p o s i t i o n , the witness was duly sworn or affirmed to 9 t e l l the truth. 10 I further certify that I am not a relative 11 o r an employee of an attorney for a party, or a 12 r e l a t i v e or an employee of a party; and that I am not 13 f i n a n c i a l l y interested, directly or indirectly, in the 14 m a t t e r . June19, 2013 17
18 o m a 0 1 1 1 19 20 21 I
7 R e a s o n for change: 8 P a g e No. L i n e No. C h a n g e to:

9
10 R e a s o n for change: 11 P a g e No. L i n e No. C h a n g e to:

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Reason for change: Page No. L i n e No. C h a n g e to: Reason for change: Page No. L i n e No. C h a n g e to: Reason for change: Page No. L i n e No. C h a n g e to:
22 R e a s o n for change:
23
Angela E. Broccardo, CSR-4679 ,P4

25
N o t a r y
13015lic, Wayne County, Michigan
24 S I G N A T U R E : 25
V I C T O R HAKIM
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1 D E P O S I T I O N ERRATA SHEET 2 P a g e No. L i n e No. C h a n g e to: 3 4 R e a s o n for change. 5 P a g e No. L i n e No. C h a n g e to: 6 7 R e a s o n for change: 8 P a g e No. L i n e No. C h a n g e to: 9 10 R e a s o n for change: 11 P a g e No. L i n e No. C h a n g e to: 12 13 R e a s o n for change. 14 P a g e No. L i n e No. C h a n g e to: 15 16 R e a s o n for change: 17 P a g e No. L i n e No. C h a n g e to: 18 19 R e a s o n for change: 20 P a g e No. _ L i n e No. C h a n g e to: 21 22 R e a s o n for change: 23 24 S I G N A T U R E : 25 V I C T O R D HAKIM A T E :
June 11, 2013
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0310 GM Deposition

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VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs.

June 11, 2013

Cobalt Claims Volume II Claims Notebook 1 4

A p p e a r i n g on behalf of the Defendant General

Defendant's Objections to Notice 1 7 5 Bates Pages 37595 through 37610 2 0 1

VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS

June 11, 2013

24 p o i n t me back to that? 25 B Y MR. COOPER:

may stall if driver is short and has a large key go.Vaip."

VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS

June 11, 2013

21 Q . G o to the next page, sir, ending in 52, fourth

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VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS

June 11, 2013

3 y o u ' v e brought with you here today?

I didn't do anything independently. Documents and

witness has already testified that he has generally

VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS

June 11, 2013

VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS

June 11, 2013

19 B Y MR. COOPER: 20 Q . T a b 13, sir. Christopher Whitt from McCarr, Kentucky

vehicle. Calling to see if there is anything out

the shop on July 9th, '05 for the vehicle just

22 a b o u t the diagnosis, ending in 76.

25 s t a t e s -- "the customer claims that her vehicle stalls

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VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS

June 11, 2013

6 Q . T h e n you go to the next page, sir, top of page 78, it

7 n e a r l y hit in the intersection." 8 D i d 9 A . Yes.

22 A . S o spell the name for me, please.

I don't think I have that one in here. 18335?

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VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS

June 11, 2013

18 e n g i n e stalling in 2005 and 2006 Cobalts?

21 t e s t i f y about claims. I brought claims that involved l o s s y o u

25 w a r r a n t y data, I may be able to answer your questions,

19 Q . S u r e . 18338. 20 A . S o I have 18 -- I don't have that one. S o if it's in

19 Q . H o w many claims have there been where there has been 21 C o b a l t ?

24 t h a t question. 25 B Y MR. COOPER:

appears that these are in the notebook that you

VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS

June 11, 2013

4 C u s t o m e r states that he was told by dealer to contact 5 6 C A C W h to start file." a t is CAC?

MR F R A NKLIN: T h a n k you. BY MR. P I C O O P E R : 16 Q . T h e r e is a "Dissatisfied Closed Business Reason"

t h i s one. Okay. Next tab? 1 8 . D o you have that? Ye s .

and r t this vehicle? I do not. I mean each case would be independent,

25 r i g h t , have its own individual facts about it. S o I

VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS

June 11, 2013

25 C o n n e c t i c u t , a 2005 Cobalt. A GM open claim date,

Next tab you said?

22 Q . 2 0 . Do you have that?

VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS

June 11, 2013

13 A . O k a y. Where am I going? 22?

24 B Y MR. COOPER: 25 Q . D o you know Mr. Cross?

VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS

June 11, 2013

VICTOR HAKIM MELTON vs. GENERAL MOTORS