Lemon Law Help

The Florida Lemon Law as explained by Michael Schiff recently in Miami:

A consumer recently purchased a new car and already has made several trips to the dealer’s service department for repairs. After picking up the vehicle, the same problem occurs, or new ones arise. The dealership employees don’t seem to care. Will they give you a refund or a new car? (As if . . . .)

Consumers do have options: The quickest and least expensive is to a claim for arbitration under the Florida Motor Vehicle Warranty Enforcement Act, also known as the “lemon law.”

This affords consumers a refund of monies paid to date for the lemon (less depreciation) or a reasonably equivalent replacement of the vehicle. It must have been purchased new in Florida, and a claim must have been filed within 24 months after delivery.

This is the deal: Once you take a car in for repairs three times for the same defect or has had it in the shop for 30 nonconsecutive days for a variety of problems, a claim is in order. You must first go through the manufacturers’ own arbitration program (which, in my opinion, is rarely helpful). If you lose, you then are allowed to proceed through the state’s own program. In both, the key to winning is proving that the car has a substantial defect that impairs its safety, use or value.

Though the law is meant to be consumer-friendly, it can be quite complicated, especially in proving to an arbitration panel that a vehicle has a substantial defect. In addition, calculating a refund can be difficult without an understanding of how depreciation and trade-in values work. Despite that, the benefits outweigh a lengthy, costly trial.

What can be done to avoid buying a lemon?

Investigate the prospective car’s repair history in Consumer Reports and auto magazines, Internet chat groups and with trusted mechanics. Many new cars go through several model years before the manufacturer works out all the kinks.

If the vehicle’s a lemon, it may help to have a private mechanic inspect it to determine the problems. You should always obtain and read all repair orders and question the findings of the dealership’s mechanic. Often, the order will state that the car’s performing to manufacturer’s specifications despite the private mechanic’s observations. There’s even a trend for dealerships to deny warranty coverage and bill the consumer for costly repairs.

It is amazing, but a couple in Missouri are putting together a lemon law case against their totally hot and expensive Aston Martin Vanquish.

As reported from Earthtimes.org, A Missouri man says the Aston Martin Vanquish he paid more than a quarter of a million dollars for is a lemon. Gary Mathes of Sunset Hills has sued the British car manufacturer under Missouri’s Lemon Law, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

This is a $260,000 car and Mr. Mathes would like to sue under the Missouri lemon law to get his money back.

Mathes said that in the 11 months since he purchased the car last year he has made a dozen trips to the dealer to report problems with the engine, brakes, fuel system and electrical system, among other things.

Aston Martin is in no mood to even speak about the Missouri lemon law case because they claim so few of the cars are made that they could not be replaced as sometimes required by the Missouri lemon law.  We will just have to see what happens with this one.