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defense@californialemonlawdefense.com
webmaster@californialemonlawdefense.com
1. Bring your car in early
- Bring your car to a factory authorized dealer
as soon as something appears wrong. The "usage
fees" calculation under the California Lemon Laws
starts with, and is directly related to, the odometer
mileage at the FIRST time you brought your vehicle to
an authorized dealer for repair of a repeating, unresolved,
manufacturing defect affecting safety, value, or use.
Therefore, the longer you wait, and the higher the mileage
at the time of the first repair, the larger the "use
fee," and the less you will recover.
2. Keep repair orders - Always obtain a copy
of the work order when you leave the vehicle for repairs,
and always obtain a copy of the completed repair order
on picking up your vehicle. Be sure that the work order
reflects your own words and comments about your complaints.
If the Service Technician summarizes or changes your
complaint to the point where it becomes ambiguous or
vague, have that Service Advisor or Technician revise
and/or add your corrected comments. Sign and receive
a copy of the Repair Order before you leave.
If you had previously brought your car to the dealer
for the same complaint but the dealer could not duplicate
your concern, demand a test drive with the Service Advisor
or Service Manager, and attempt to duplicate the problem
during the drive. If successful, have the technician
write on the Repair Order itself that he or she has
"verified the customer's complaint."
And, if the problem recurs, even if only five minutes
later, and you leave your car at the dealer again, have
the technician write up an entirely new work or repair
order with a separate and new repair order number. This
prevents the dealer from combining several repair visits
into one, an unfortunate common practice detrimental
to you.
Although not absolutely necessary to prove your claim
at a later date, these steps will help to create a complete
record of the vehicle's history and may be very important
to proving and winning your case.
3. Be consistent in your complaints. The
California Lemon Laws require that a manufacturer's
authorized repair facility be provided with a "reasonable"
number of opportunities to repair the same problem(s).
Therefore, be as consistent as possible on each repeated
repair attempt in describing the problem(s) you are
having. This will establish that the problem is the
same recurring one, and will make any potential lemon
law claim easier to establish and prove.
4. Check on TSB’s
– These are Technical Service Bulletins
issued by the manufacturers about common defects or
repairs in certain models. Your Service Advisor, usually,
will not tell you about these TSB’s unless you
ask. Ask the dealer to make note of your TSB request
on the repair order, even if your dealer tells you that
none exist for the problem you may be having.
5. Don't be misled by bad advice - Dealers'
and manufacturers' personnel, without intending to,
frequently practice law without a license. They do this
by giving you their version or (mis)understanding
of the California lemon laws. More often than
not it is wrong and may be detrimental to your case
or to a decision you may need to make. It doesn't matter
whether the reason for this misinformation is unintentional.
The effect is the same and can do you great harm. So
check any "legal" advice you are given by
the dealer or manufacturer with our firm before making
any decision that may later harm your case.
Also, don't be swayed by a dealer's defensive claims
that the consumer is causing the problem. ("Doesn't
know how to use the brakes or clutch;" "lives
on a steep hill;" "uses bad gasoline;"
etc.). Unfortunately, this is a common tactic when the
dealership cannot fix the problem or when the manufacturer
has no immediate fix for the problem.
6. Beware of arbitration - Automotive manufacturers
frequently recommend arbitration as a desired, or even
imply that it is a mandatory, prerequisite to resolving
your problem. Arbitration is neither desirable nor mandatory!
And it is absolutely not a prerequisite for making a
California lemon law demand! In fact, what the manufacturer
may not tell you is that if an arbitrator (who may have
no legal training, nor any mechanical training) rules
against you, that ruling carries the same legal weight,
and demands the same respect, as if it were a ruling
made in a court of law by a competent judge! Therefore,
it can become a very powerful tool which may be used
against you in any future legal proceeding which you
may initiate to have the manufacturer repurchase your
vehicle under the California lemon laws.
At present, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has not
found any manufacturer to have in place an "arbitration
program" which complies with federal minimum standards.
This means that the FTC basically finds these programs
to be unfair to consumers. Thus, you have little to
gain, and much to lose, by resorting to arbitration
or to the manufacturer's "free dispute resolution
program."
7. Take the next step. - Contact a lemon
law attorney from your state!
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