A three-year story, more like an anecdote, has finally ended in India. It all started in 2005, when 80-year-old local resident Ashok Tolat bought a new Forester from an official dealer. Few people know, but in India this crossover was sold not under the Subaru brand — the car was listed in the Chevrolet lineup, owned by General Motors.
Tolat calmly drove his Chevrolet Forester until one day a tropical downpour with a small flood happened — for India this is as common as snow in winter for us. When trying to cross a puddle no deeper than 30 centimeters, the pensioner's car "gulped" water and, naturally, stalled. Outraged by such behavior of the car, Tolat sued the company that sold him the car — that is, GM, not Fuji Heavy.
The key argument in the lawsuit was the Chevrolet Forester promotional brochure, which claimed that the car "overcomes any obstacles with the ease of a mountain goat," and this was accompanied by corresponding pictures. The owner sarcastically noted that goats, unlike the car, do not stall when crossing a stream a foot deep and certainly do not die in it. "So the buyer was clearly misled," the plaintiff concluded. The local court twice sided with Tolat. GM tried to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court of India, claiming that the Forester is not intended for all weather conditions and types of roads, but to no avail: the highest instance again supported the injured consumer.
The reckoning for GM looks like this: the car will be bought back from the owner at the price of its original purchase. And at the same time, the company will now be more careful in composing its advertising materials.
