There
are several key notions and definitions that will be of
use to those, who have been unlucky enough to become the
owners of lemon cars.
A lemon car – a vehicle that has the
same recurring defect over a specified time that cannot
be fixed within “a reasonable number of attempts”. The
number of attempts is defined by the lemon law in place
in a particular state.
A lemon law – legislation that applies
to the vehicles with persistent defect(s) and defines
what can be considered a breach of the warranty and what
the consumer is entitled to if the warranty is breached.
The Magnuson-Moss Act – legislation
that protects the buyer of tangible personal property
purchased for the purposes other than resale at a price
equal or exceeding $25, when the warranty has been breached.
The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) –
another piece of legislation that concerns lemons and
is designed to provide the customer with the right to
recover the purchasing cost of a lemon car or demand a
replacement.
A warranty period is, naturally, a period
over which the warranty is valid. It usually lasts 12-24
months, or can be expressed in mileage – 12,000-18,000
miles. Under the warranty, the repairs are conducted free
of charge by the manufacturer or the dealer. Often times,
you have to pay for the repairs after the warranty period
has expired. But if you manage to prove that the defect
is hidden and was present in the car during the warranty,
then your manufacturer or dealer is to recover your costs.
An express written warranty – a written
confirmation by the manufacturer to remedy any defects
or replace the vehicle if it fails to meet the specifications
set forth within a warranty period. If you don’t have
a warranty, you cannot do much about remedying the lemon
situation and your dealer or manufacturer probably just
wouldn’t want to.
A safety-related defect is a car defect
that can entail a serious injury if not fixed. In some
states, one unsuccessful attempt to get it right is enough
to file for a buyback.
A lemon law buyback is a vehicle that
had been previously qualified as a lemon, returned to
the manufacturer, presumably got fixed and put up for
sale again. The lemon law envisages that the dealer or
the manufacturer of the buyback must provide comprehensive
information about a former non-conformity. However, there
are few customers, who would be not unhappy to go for
“a once failure”. Therefore, some dealers transport these
cars to a different state in an attempt to sell them “clean”.
In this case, you can use a vehicle identification number
and check online databases to make sure it has not been
on the lemon list.
A repairs report - copies and originals
of repairs are all-important when it comes to the lemon
case. They are proof that you have been to the shop with
your car and it was diagnosed with having a fault. It
can come in handy should you decide to turn to the arbitration
court. When you take your car in for service, before signing
anything you’d better make sure that what the repair man
enters as a problem fixed coincides with the defect you
described. You are also to check the time, date, names
and odometer reading to verify they are accurate.
When your car comes to a final halt in a traffic jam
or when your presence somewhere is critical for you, you
can write down your feelings of frustration. This emotional
bearing can be decisive in the court hearing of a lemon
case.
