My Experience With The California Lemon Law

by Mike Gulett –

The California Lemon Law is intended to protect customers from defective and unrepairable vehicles that are still under the original manufactures warranty. Subsequent owners to the original owner are protected as well as long as the original manufactures warranty is valid. It is important to note that the manufacture is the responsible party and not the dealer. Sometimes the dealer can help resolve the dispute as you will see in the second case below.

Other US states and other countries may have similar laws but this article today is only about the California Lemon Law because that is all I know and it reflects my experience.

Below I describe two cases where I have asked for my money back from two well known car manufactures. I am not identifying these manufactures and simply calling the vehicles “Car No. 1” and “Car No. 2”.

Below is an Overview of the California Lemon Law – From the California Department of Consumer Affairs.

The California Lemon Law requires a vehicle manufacturer that is unable to repair a vehicle to conform to the manufacturer’s express warranty after a reasonable number of repair attempts to replace or repurchase the vehicle.

Although there is no set number for “reasonable repair attempts,” California’s Lemon Law Presumption contains guidelines for determining when a “reasonable number” of repair attempts have been made.

The California Lemon Law covers the following new and used vehicles sold or leased in California that come with the manufacturer’s new vehicle warranty:

• Cars, pickup trucks, vans, and SUVs.
• The chassis, chassis cab, and drivetrain of a motorhome.
• Dealer-owned vehicles and demonstrators.
• Many vehicles purchased or leased primarily for business use.
• Vehicles purchased or leased for personal, family, or household purposes.

The California Lemon Law applies throughout the duration of the vehicle manufacturer’s original warranty period. Consult your vehicle manufacturer’s warranty manual for warranty periods pertaining to your vehicle.

The repurchase of the vehicle includes refunding all money spent on the car including actual purchase price, sales tax and license fees. There can be a reduction in this amount based on the miles driven, or value received by the owner.

Below are summaries of my experience with two different manufacturers. Both of these cars were luxury 4-door sedans which I bought new.

Car No. 1

This car was originally bought new for my wife as her daily driver in 2001. Unfortunately in the first few weeks she experienced engine failure which required a tow truck to haul the car to the dealer for repair. After the second failure she tossed me the keys and said “here it is you car now”. We do not expect a new car to ever leave us in need of a tow truck.

So in an effort to keep peace in the family I accepted it as my daily driver because I had selected this car for her. I drove it for more than one year without any problems. Then one day I had the same failure she had experienced. The engine felt like all the cylinders were not working and it seemed like I would not make it home. I had it towed to the dealer for repair (now this was the third time for this failure).

The dealer “repaired” it and after picking it up I experienced the same failure on the way home! I barely made it home and needed another tow truck to haul it back to the dealer. They “repaired” it again and I was able to drive it home successfully. This was the fourth failure for this defect.

After some thought and research I decided that I had a “lemon” and I wanted my money back. I contacted a lawyer who spent all of her work time on California Lemon Law cases so I figured she knew what she was doing.

She investigated my situation in detail. I sent her the services records and explained the situation over the phone. I had to convince her that I had a serious case because she only takes cases that she believes she will win.

She took the case and we signed an agreement where I agreed to pay her a small retainer fee and another fee after we won the case. The manufacturer also pays a fee to the lawyer after the case is over, which in my case was the same amount as I paid.

Her approach on all her cases is to go directly to the manufacturer and not take it to court. This approach works because the legal departments of these manufacturers know her reputation – she only accepts cases she will win. This approach of avoiding the court system saves money too.

Her first advice to me was to park the car and not drive it. She opened a case with the manufacturer and they wanted to inspect the car at the dealer. The lawyer would have preferred that the car was still not functioning with the engine defect but she was convinced after my experience that even though the car was working properly now I had no confidence that I could successfully drive it without the aid of another tow truck.

I took it to the dealer for an inspection of the engine problem and as advised by the lawyer I watched the entire inspection by the dealer technician in person. He did show me where there was an error on the computer analysis.

It wasn’t long after that that we were negotiating with the manufacturer for a repurchase of the car. They wanted to replace it but I insisted on a refund so I could then decided what to do next. They agreed and I received a refund of the purchase price (with a small deduction because I had driven it a few thousand miles in the two years or so of ownership), sales tax and two years of registration fees.

The manufacturer had the chance to repair the car and sell it as a used car to someone else and get some of their money back. Because this was all done outside the court system I believe the manufacturer was not required to brand the car as a California Lemon Law car.

I was happy to see the end of that car and I was very happy with the outcome.

Car No. 2

Car No. 2 is a different story because I am a big fan of this manufacturer. I traded in a different model made by this same manufacturer on Car No. 2, a luxury 4-door sedan, in 2007.

The issue began right away, although it did not require a tow truck it was a problem we do not expect from a luxury car, or any modern car.

When the wheels were cold, driving first thing in the morning, the rear wheels would vibrate causing a rough ride for 15 minutes or so until they were warmed up and then the ride was smooth and normal. This was not as serious as the problem with Car No. 1 but it was serious enough to motivate me to do something.

The wheels were an option upgrade and were a larger diameter than the standard wheels. This car came from the factory with these wheels as an expensive option and they were listed on the window sticker.

After several attempts by the dealer to address this problem with no solution I wanted this car to be bought back by the manufacturer. I decided that I would handle this myself without a lawyer and with the aid of the dealer who certainly wanted to sell me another car.

The dealer arranged for a factory representative to fly over from Europe to inspect my car and try to resolve this matter. This factory rep and the dealer service manager came to my home at 8AM one morning so we could take a drive when the wheels were at their coldest. The service manager rode in the back seat and the manufacture rep was in the front passenger seat and both clearly felt the vibration with the service manager making statements about how rough the ride was. I made it clear to the factory rep that I was likely to be a customer of his company in the future but I wanted this problem solved now.

The manufacture rep did not have a solution then but he went back to the factory to discuss it with engineering. Their thought was that somehow the larger diameter wheels were the problem, even though they could not find a problem with these specific wheels. The proposed solution from the factory was to replace my wheels with the standard smaller diameter wheels.

My response was something like this, “no, I bought this car with these wheels from the factory, they are listed on the window sticker and are part of the car and if they don’t work then buy the car back.”

Soon thereafter the dealer contacted me with a proposal to trade this car, where I would receive full purchase price plus tax and license, for another model that I could specify. I liked this idea and specified a car that they found on a boat on the way to the US East Coast. The manufacturer redirected this car to me in California where I received 100% of my investment in Car. No. 2 as trade in value and paid a reasonable price for the new car.

I was happy, the dealer was happy and I think the manufacturer was happy too. I drove this new car for many years and continue to be a positive supporter of this brand.

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There you have it – my two experiences convincing manufacturers to buy back cars that had unrepairable defects. This is probably only possible with the threat of the California Lemon Law (or a similar law) providing an ultimate protection for customers.

Have you had an experience with a Lemon Law? Let us know what you think in the Comments.