— A Volkswagen CC tire cupping lawsuit alleges the cars are prone to constant tire replacements, alignments and suspension problems, causing the tires to appear to have little scoops taken out of them.
The plaintiffs claim the two main causes of tire cupping are a defective suspension system and improper alignment.
The proposed class-action tire cupping lawsuit includes all U.S. owners and lessees who bought or leased Volkswagen CC cars on or after June 1, 2012.
Florida plaintiff Lila Wilson says she bought a new 2012 Volkswagen CC in October 2011, and as a retired person knew the car wouldn't be used much each year.
As believed, she put about 3,500 miles on the CC per year, but at 16,000 miles the auto shop informed her that her tires were “chopped,” otherwise known as tire cupping, and that all the tires had to be replaced for a cost of $500 to $700 with alignment and balancing. The mechanic said the cause of tire chopping/cupping was her vehicle’s suspension.
California plaintiff Brian Maytum says he purchased a 2014 Volkswagen CC in July 2015 when the car had about 8,000 miles on it, but by May, the car had 26,000 miles on it and Mr. Maytum had to have all four tires replaced due to tire cupping at a cost of about $800 to $1,000, with alignment and balancing.
The plaintiffs say all the CC cars have faulty suspensions, shocks and struts which cause uneven wear, premature failure and tire cupping.
The lawsuit alleges a car such as the Volkswagen CC typically has higher negative camber settings for better handling performance. The camber setting is the "angle between the vertical axis of the wheels used for steering and the vertical axis of the vehicle when viewed from the front or rear."
A negative camber leans both tires on the axle towards the center of the vehicle and causes the inside edges of the tires to wear faster than the outside edges.
The plaintiffs claim that due to the high negative camber settings, the inner portion of the CC tires wear out faster than tires on other vehicles. In addition, VW designed the car's front suspension with no ability to adjust the front camber on the vehicles or to correct for their being out of alignment.
Although the plaintiffs pay high costs to replace the tires, the lawsuit says the problem continues because the suspensions, shocks and struts are defective and will cause new tires to eventually experience the cupping. This means CC owners must continue to pay for alignments and tire replacements for as long as they own the cars.
Since 2010, VW allegedly knew or should have known the CC cars are defective, yet the automaker kept advertising the cars as safe and reliable knowing the alignment and tire cupping problems existed. By allegedly concealing the problems, the automaker refuses to correct or pay for damages while the cars are under warranty.
Wilson and the other plaintiffs say they would not have purchased the cars, or at least not have paid what they did, if Volkswagen would have told them about the tire cupping problem.
Despite knowing about the alignment problems, VW failed to provide an acceptable service or repair procedure to fix the problems.
The Volkswagen CC tire cupping lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami - Lila Wilson, et. al., v. Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., and Volkswagen AG.
The plaintiffs are represented by Podhurst Orseck P.A., Kreher & Trapani, LLP, and Pogust Braslow & Millrood, LLC.
CarComplaints.com has complaints from owners about Volkswagen CC cars and many other VW models.