Finding Your Way through The Lemon Law Juicer
By E. L. Eversman, Esq.
When it comes to cars, one of the most frustrating experiences is to find that the new car you just purchased has unexpected and undesirable habits. Knowing whether you truly have a "lemon" and what to do about it can be daunting - especially if the service technicians tell you that there is nothing wrong with your car or that they were "unable to verify" your complaint. If you actually have purchased a vehicle which falls into your state's description of a lemon, however, you typically have viable remedies.
Is the car really a lemon?
Determining whether the car is a lemon is largely based on individual consumer expectations and can be extremely subjective. Some people have a high tolerance for a car's behavior; others do not. I have seen both extremes of the tolerance spectrum: From the person with the 6 month old car on which the brakes and pads had been replaced 3 times, the engine had been changed, and the electrical system malfunctioned repeatedly; to the person who complained that the plastic cup-holder broke once and the gas gauge rose too slowly. Add the service technician's observations and experience to a customer's perceptions, and you end up with a potential for confusion, miscommunication, and dissatisfaction, whether the car operates properly or not.
There are many instances in which a lemon law complaint could have been avoided if the service department had taken the time to explain to the customer why the vehicle behaves as it does, and why that behavior is normal and not dangerous. The majority of the times, complaints arise from genuine concerns that the vehicle is unsafe rather than just exhibiting annoying tendencies. Because people typically have little experience with the mechanics of how a vehicle functions, and because these machines operate at high rates of speed, a common (usually non-threatening) issue, like squeaking or squealing brakes, can easily cause consumers to fear that something is terribly wrong with the car. On the other side, however, some people simply have inappropriate expectations of how the vehicle will function or what a car will do. Cars are machines, let's not forget.
How do I find out if it is a lemon?
Consumers have several options for squeezing a lemon. Every state in the United States has a lemon law, and there is also the equivalent of a federal lemon law. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty - Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2031, et seq. sets the initial standards regarding consumers' rights pertaining to the defective product and the state laws expand on those. The most important thing to understand up-front is that vehicle lemon laws are based on the existence of a warranty which comes with the vehicle when it is sold. It sounds silly to emphasize the warranty, because new cars are almost always sold with one, but the warranty is the mechanism triggering the application of these laws.
State laws typically have broader remedies and well defined definitions of the characteristics of a defect causing a car to be labeled a lemon. While it sounds simple, however, there is often a considerable amount of thought required to determine if your car is covered by a state's lemon law. Initially, you have to determine if the law even applies to your car. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and many state lemon laws apply solely to consumer products - usually described as being primarily for "personal, family, or household use". Therefore, if the vehicle is primarily for business use, the protections may not apply. There are also limitations on the time or mileage within which you must have experienced the defect. Just about every state gives you a year to discover that you have a defective car. Some states, however, give you two years. Mileage limits range from 12,000 to 24,000 miles.
What are the requirements to legally determine if my car is a lemon?
States typically have several different categories applying to a lemon determination including: Nature of the problem, number of repair attempts, and number of days out of service. For example, each state has a limitation on the number of times a service facility can attempt to repair a vehicle before it is considered a lemon. The limit on repair attempts is typically 3 or 4 times. Is that for the same problem, or does it include attempts to repair various problems? Good question. Some states tell you directly it is for the same problem and that a greater number (like 8 or 10) is the threshold of cumulative repair attempts for the problem smorgasbord to rise to the level of a lemon. Other states just let you guess.
Additionally, if the defect is truly dangerous, the number of times a service facility may repair the vehicle is dramatically reduced. In Georgia, Maryland, and Minnesota 1 repair attempt on the brakes or steering system is enough for a car to end up as a lemon. In Arkansas, Hawaii, Iowa, Ohio, and West Virginia, 1 attempt to repair a condition "likely to cause death or serious bodily injury" is all it takes for the label.
But wait, there's more. Irrespective of the number of times you take the car in for repair or the nature of the defect, if your car has been "out of service" for more than a designated number of days, your car may be deemed a lemon. In most states, the car must have been out of service for 30 days - except for Maine, Massachusetts, and Mississippi which only require 15 days; North Carolina requires 20 days; and Nebraska and Oklahoma require 40 and 45 days respectively. (South Dakota does not provide this option.) The important part is to determine if your state's law counts the time as calendar or business days, because states do vary. For a quick summary of the state lemon laws, check out the Lemon Law Summaries. For links to access your state's lemon law, try MEGALAW.com.
OK. It's a lemon. What can I do?
Remedies for a lemon range from compensating you for the decrease in the car's value resulting from the problems to rescinding the entire purchase. If the company buys the vehicle back, it usually pays for all costs incurred, including titling fees, registration, sales tax, and interest on the financed amount. Periodically check with the service facility to see if a technical service announcement or bulletin (TSB) has been issued by the manufacturer for the problem you are experiencing. After there is widespread complaint about a particular problem, manufacturers usually issue a TSB detailing how the problem can be eliminated. (A TSB is similar in concept to a patch to fix a software problem.) If the problem involves the onboard computer or electrical system, it may take a while to be recognized because those problems can be very elusive.
Mercedes-Benz recently admitted that glitches with the Comand system (which integrated the onboard navigator, telephone, and entertainment devices) caused it to buy back 2,000 E-class sedans from disgruntled customers, according to "Bugs Bite Mercedes Quality", an article by Diana T. Kurylko appearing in Automotive News in mid-September. Part of the frustration for Mercedes was that the problems occurred sporadically, preventing a quick diagnosis and remedy. Of course, that feeling probably did not rival the frustration felt by the customers when they discovered their cars would not start.
A last consideration.
If you have a vehicle that is dangerous, or one with one or more repeated problems that renders it unreliable, certainly consider pursuing a remedy under the applicable lemon law. But if you are complaining about a single incident involving a broken cup holder and your dissatisfaction with the response time of a gas gauge, the only lemon-like attribute you will encounter will be the sour faces of the service technicians when they see you coming.
E. L. Eversman
The information provided in this column is for information purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. You should always consult an attorney licensed to practice in your Country, State, and/or Territory as laws vary from Country to Country, State to State, and Territory to Territory. The author is delighted to share information but cannot be responsible for damage or adversity encountered by reliance upon that information and urges you to consult with local counsel.
The above article is provided for the interest and entertainment of our visitors. The views expressed in this article are only those of the author, who is solely responsible for the content. AutoGuide.net does not endorse any of these views, and is not to be held responsible for any of the content provided in the above article.
Click here to read AutoMuse's past articles!
If you have any questions or comments for the AutoMuse or the AutoGuide.net, please fill out this form.
