Is My Car a Lemon?
“Is my car a Lemon?” This is a question we hear many times every week. The answer is determined car by car, case by case, r/o by r/o. What is an r/o? Those are the repair orders you get from the service department, and they provide the paper trail of your frustration. Repair orders, along with purchase and warranty documents, are important evidence in every Lemon Law case, and often hold the answer to a consumer's last exasperated gasp: How much is enough?
The California Lemon Law is basically a rule of reason. Before you can claim a refund or replacement, you must give the manufacturer a reasonable opportunity to repair the car or truck. The manufacturer’s opportunity to repair includes all authorized service dealers in this state, thanks to a landmark case we handled many years ago called Ibrahim v Ford Motor Company. But what is reasonable? Or rather, what is unreasonable? Just how much is enough? The answer depends on many factors: how many days the car or truck has been in the repair shop, how many times it was taken in for repairs, what the odometer reading was at each repair attempt, how many miles the car has been driven in all, what the terms of the express warranty are, and in particular, what seems to be the problem.
It makes sense that the California Lemon Law recognizes a difference between defective brakes and poor radio reception. If the defect is likely to cause death or serious bodily injury, even two repair attempts is presumed to be a reasonable opportunity to repair, if certain other conditions are met. Other substantial defects prompt a finding of unreasonableness after four repairs. General poor quality of a vehicle can also trigger the Lemon Law, such as when the car is in for 30 days or more for a variety of defects within the first year and a half, or 18,000 miles of use.
You can start answering the question “How much is enough?” yourself by digging out your complete set of r/o’s. If you think even one is missing, return to the servicing dealer and ask for a printout of the complete warranty history. Years ago, these were hard to get, but now the complete history should be readily available on a single computer printout. It is important to save every repair order, and it is equally important to get them written up in the first place. If you are taking your car in over and over again for the same repair, don’t let the dealer get away with refusing to write up an r/o. Get some documentation of your complaint every time you take the car in for service of any kind.
Once you have a complete set of repair documents, put them in chronological order. We can help you list the dates you took the car in and count the number of days before you picked it up; along with the date, we list the odometer reading; we list every condition or concern you mentioned and what was worked on, even if these things do not seem connected at first. This repair chronology will begin to provide an objective picture of your experience with the car. Ask yourself whether the defects make you feel less safe in the vehicle, and whether you feel they have substantially impaired the car’s use or value to you. After 25 years of handling Lemon Law claims, we investigate each case on its own particular facts, and these are questions we will be asking when you visit our law office to ask: “How much is enough?”
