Strategies for Smart Car Buyers

Is your car a lemon? Or do you really want another car and so you try to force the manufacturer buy it back?

For every consumer protection law, such as the so-called Lemon Law, there are people trying to game the system and use it to their advantage. And then there are the lawyers (don't get me started on lawyers!) exploiting the laws for personal gain.

The Motor Press Guild sponsored a lunch that pitted two lawyers against each other -- one that represents consumers and the other who defends automakers. It was a lively event with some good information about this important law.

Representing the consumer was the one lawyer who seemed to get the respect of both sides, William R. McGee who has successfully represented 8,000 lemon law claims. Appearing for the defense was Brian Takahashi, a partner with Bowman and Brooke who has defended all the major automakers from consumer claims of negligence.

These two speakers were introduced by Don Fuller who often does vehicle inspection at dealerships in lemon law cases that sometimes take 10 hours and involve the dismantling of the car's engine. Fuller commented that, "if the person tells you one story and the car tells you another, it ain't the car that's lying."

Takahashi explained that the Lemon Law was drafted in 1970 because carmakers were not living up to the terms of their warranty. It was further strengthened by the Tanner Act in 1982 which determined that if the carmaker was found at fault, the car would be replaced or reimbursement provided if it was not fixed in a reasonable number of attempts.

The acronym DR. SOC helps test whether a situation falls under the Lemon Law. Defects: Is the defect covered by the warranty? Reasonable: Have there been a reasonable number of repair attempts? Substantial: Is there a substantial impairment of use? Objective: Has there been an objective test of the impairment? Case: All claims are considered on a case by case basis.

McGee said that people are overly focused on the numbers -- they think that if it has had so many visits to the shop it is automatically declared a lemon. However, every situation is different and "the numbers are just one element," he said.

          (Attorney Brian Takahashi - Photo by Pete Lyons for the Motor Press      Guild.)

California and Wisconsin are the only two states that award "civil penalties" for Lemon Law cases making it "so incredibly effective for consumers to use," McGee said.

 Naturally, Takahashi disagree citing various examples of abuse. In one case, a person kept returning to the garage due to an ABS light that wouldn't go off. During the inspection, however, it was determined that a bobby pin had been shoved into an electrical connection to arch two contacts.

In another case, a consumer demanded the manufacturer buy back the car because the fuel light kept coming on too early. In most situations this wouldn't be a problem but the driver was in a wheel chair and needed to have confidence in the fuel level. "There are a lot of gray area cases," McGee added.

Additionally, McGee said that in bad economic times, sometimes people are just trying to get out of high payments. That's why, one of the first things he asks for is the sales contract. If the person is upside down in the car, that's a red flag.

For more information, read our story about Lemon Laws on Edmunds.com.