Last Updated: November 2017
If you think that your vehicle may be a lemon, it is best to call a lemon law attorney right away. You can call the 800 number in your owner’s manual to ask the manufacturer for help, but chances are the manufacturer will not assist you. In my experience, clients of mine that have called the manufacturer directly are often told that they do not have a lemon law case but they are welcome to continue bringing their car in for warranty repairs and their warranty will always be honored.
In some cases, the warranty is still honored. However, once you call the manufacturer directly about a lemon law claim, they know that you may be trying to build a lemon law case and they may flag your vehicle’s identification number in their computer system so that the next time your bring your vehicle in for a warranty repair, you end up with a repair invoice that states “no problem found” which means that the dealership did not verify the problem you have complained about and they did not make any repairs. This is the worst case scenario.
The best case scenario is that you call the auto manufacturer to seek relief under the lemon law and sometimes they will offer you one month’s car payment to make up for the number of visits you have made to their dealership(s). This is better than the worst case scenario but it is nowhere near as good as an actual lemon law buyback. In a lemon law buyback, the automobile manufacturer pays you back for your down payment, all monthly payments, registration fee, and any out of pocket expenses for rental cars or towing fees, minus a mileage offset, and they pay off the entire balance owed on your auto loan. If you think you have a lemon law claim, please call our office for a free case evaluation at (855) 595-3666 today. We are here to help you!