The Top 19+ Frequently Asked Questions At our office about Lemon Automobiles:

Q1:  Why not Mediate?   Some states require a last letter or final demand to the manufacturer, but Kentucky has no such requirement.  In Kentucky, you are not required to mediate the problem if mediation will not solve the problem.   In some states it is required.  If it is required, then with Chrysler and GM you may do it through our office.

The problem is that if you ask for mediation of your lemon auto claim through the BBB or a similar office, the car manufacturer pays the wages of the mediation hearing officer.  This produces a biased opinion.  Often the hearing officers are offered high paying jobs handling claims later with the car manufacturers if they produce "good opinions." 

Q2:  I bought a 1997 Chrysler at Bill's Dodge in Lexington, Ky.  I need to know if I am able to use the lemon law act on my car.  I bought the car July the 26th, 2002.  It had a small warranty that has ran out. They tried to get me to take the extended warranty, I couldn't afford it, so I didn't. My transmission and brakes have been acting up in the past week. Do I have a case?   No you don’t have a lemon auto case in my opinion. The Lemon auto law covers cars with warranties. Your warranty ran out and these problems happened after the warranty ran out. You chose not to buy an extended warranty. The repairs are now your responsibility.  This may not be what you want to hear, but that is the law for Kentucky.  Lemon auto cases are about warranties.  Some warranties are unwritten but, after a car gets so old (normally after 3 years) the warranties run out and the repairs are your responsibility. Some parts are always your responsibility to replace such as tires and brakes, which are replaced as the car gets older.  However, even then, a product liability case can occur if the product is poorly manufactured.  Car manufacturers warranty the car but, unless the tires wore out or blew up within 1,000 miles or were otherwise defective, the tires have no warranty and, if they did, your complaint would be with Goodyear, not Ford.   

Q3: Why shouldn't I sue the new car dealership?   If you have a problem with a dealer, poor pay is often why you are not getting it fixed.  The manufacturer often doesn’t pay the dealer enough to make warranty repairs very profitable. If you are involved in a Lemon Auto case with a new car, your warranty is primarily with the company that manufactured the car, not the dealership.  Repair work is paid for by the manufacturer based on how long a mechanic should take to make the repair.  The manufacturer often doesn't pay enough for the repair for dealers or mechanics to want warranty work. As a result, Dealers and Mechanics often can’t "find or duplicate the problem" as a means to turn down work or they may use other phrases to make you pay for it. Low pay causes some dealers or mechanics to spend only the minimum time doing the work and to discourage warranty work overall.  Dealers charge more hours at full rates when car buyers pay for the work.  Dealers also often refer warranty work to other dealers who don't have enough work, which often sends you to second rate shops.  

In Kentucky, the dealership cannot be sued under the lemon law unless the dealer knew of the defect at the time of sale and it is often difficult to prove that the dealer knew about the defect. However the Federal lemon law still makes the dealer liable.

The dealership can have it in his best interest to keep the car in the shop, repairing the car over and over again, and billing the manufacturer for it.  Often, a dealer may repair the same item 4, 5 or more times never fixing the real problem.  Every time the dealer works on the car, he makes more and more profit from the car manufacturer and the Dealer has little or no interest in getting you a refund on what may be a car that will never be right. 

When a dealer does repair work, he works for a small profit percentage but, he does make some profit, so he keeps on repairing it.  It isn't his job to get the refund for you and no one pays him for that.  The answer is often to sue the manufacturer for a full refund of the car not the dealership.   Dealers can be sued for fraud or under Magnusom-Moss for warranties.   But unless the dealership was involved in fraud, you normally have no real need or case against him.  Your case is primarily one against the manufacturer.

Q4:  Can I sue the Used Car Lot?  You can sue the car manufacturer for his warranty on a used car.  But after the new car warranty is gone, there are normally no warranties from the dealer.  Other states have different local laws.   For a used car, any warranty or guarantee you have is what is left over from the 3-year, 36,000 mile drive, train warranty, or your bumper to bumper warranty.   There are also some unwritten or implied warranties and product liability claims can be made.  If you purchased a warranty from the dealer you may also have that warranty. 

But, if you paid for one of the warranties from a used car dealer, you have also often paid for a useless warranty.  Often in Kentucky, cars are sold "as is" in the sales documents.  "As is" means that you are responsible for any wear and tear for the vehicle.  If the dealer gives a warranty, it is often given for 30 days or 1,000 miles and only on the drive train. However, there are other guaranties and warranties that are given.   Warnings and disclosures have to be given to the buyer if the car is flood damaged or if it is made from the parts of other cars.  Other laws prevent mileage rollbacks.  Often fraud like this is used to sue used car dealer for injuries that were later sustained.   Used car lemon auto cases are far more difficult to win and they normally don’t rely on the lemon auto statute.  With used cars, the buyer must be far more careful when he purchases the auto.     

Q5:  What happens in a normal lemon auto case--what is the process?   Normally, our lemon auto cases with new car manufacturers follow the following order of events:  After the initial interview, we file a complaint that requires a $150.00 dollar filing fee from the client.  This fee is refunded as court costs if the client wins the lemon auto case. The manufacturer files an answer within 30-days.  The attorney then makes an offer to the opposing counsel as soon as he gets the answer to the complaint. The offer is that the manufacturer buys back the vehicle for it's full purchase price.   Every manufacturer we have dealt with has had a buy back program, including all the US manufacturers and the Japanese ones.  A deduction is allowed for the mileage from the purchase price, plus any court costs. This offer is almost always accepted within 20 to 60 days if the defect is substantial, or a counter offer is made if the defect is minor.  When we accept the offer, the vehicle is returned to the dealership and the manufacturer.  However, it takes time (1-2 weeks) after the vehicle is returned before the check is received from the manufacturer and the check is processed. During that time they have your vehicle, you may have to look for another car, plus pay on the old loan. 

Q6:  Is my leased car covered by the lemon auto law?  Leased Vehicles have always been covered by the lemon law.  All leases are leases with options to buy.  It is a part of the UCC and leases that they are  in essence a “purchase.”  However, it was years before the law was corrected and explained.  Many judges allowed leases as sales years before the law was amended and clarified. Now all the states include leases as sales. 

There is a lot of litigation going on to limit leases and car companies often give a lower offer of damages if the car is a lease. 

Q7:  What is the statute of limitation? It has been 3 years what kind of chance would I stand in getting my truck "bought back" by the Manufacturer?  It has been repaired now but, apparently still meets all of the qualifications of being a lemon.  Under Kentucky's  lemon auto law, the defect has to effect performance value or safety, and the defect has to first appear within 12 months of purchase.  You can bring the suit and sue at a much later date.  Under the federal law you have within one year after the warranty runs out to sue.  

Under Magnuson-Moss, the defect has to normally be covered under the Express Warranty and appear within the Express Warranty period to make a claim.  The limit is the warranty period, plus one year.  In any case, your “case’ is almost always with the Manufacturer and after a point, your case becomes too old.  Normally, the maximum time limit for bringing a case is within one year after the drive train warranty runs out.  The time limit is always different.  In the case of KIA with a 100,000 mile warranty it runs a long time. 

Q8:  Why do I need an attorney for my Lemon Auto claim?  Without an attorney what you collect will often be far less.  The manufacturer normally won’t  voluntarily pay unless you file a lawsuit.   Individuals simply don't know how to process a lawsuit and filing the lawsuit makes the manufacturers want to settle.  The average cost of fully litigating the lemon auto lawsuit is far more than the cost of refunding the purchase price of your car.  Unless you file a lawsuit, the Dealer and the Manufacturer will simply ignore you and hope that you will eventually go away.  Unless you file a lawsuit, your complaints are only hot air.  In 1985, the Mississippi Workers Comp board did a study.   That study held that if an attorney represented a person in Mississippi they obtained about twice what the average person got without an attorney.   If you want to get your money faster, if you want to get more, use an attorney.  If you want to get less or nothing, do it yourself.    

Q9:  What are the costs?  Your initial cost is the $150.00  filing fee.  However, if you win your lemon auto case, your filing fees and part of the attorney fees are paid by the manufacturer.  Litigating the case through appeal will cost the company about $30,000 if you win, it costs $60,000, (at least), plus the car.   

Q10:  How much time does it take?  Normally these cases are settled within 3-6 months.   However, litigation is always possible when both sides think that the other is wrong.   I never took over a year in my first 20 cases and over 90% are done in far less than 6 months.    Any case could drag out for years in litigation, but most settle within 6 months. 

Q11:  How do I choose an attorney?   It is hard to find an attorney that likes to do this type of case simply because bankruptcy and divorces are the day in and day out common type of case that all attorneys normally do.  Because this type of case is different, some attorneys do not like to take lemon auto cases.  However, you can go to www.Bankruptcy-Divorce.com or a lawyer referral service, which will refer you to qualified attorneys that have specifically asked to be referred these types of cases.    

Q12:  How much is my used car lot warranty from a buy here pay here worth?  Welcome to another form of warranty fraud.   If you purchased a warranty from a unscrupulous used car lot, you probably paid about $1,000.00 to $1,500.00 for it, plus tax and interest, which by the time of closing adds about $2,000.00 to the cost of the car.  It may require you to use the dealership's shop where he merely turns down the warranty claiming that it was only normal wear and tear and not “defective.”   Often, if the policy was from Western General, the dealership actually owns the insurance company that issued the warranty, which has never paid a claim and never will.  You just lost another $2,000.00 dollars as the victim of another type of dealership insurance fraud. You rarely get to fully read or inspect such warranties before you buy them.  You only see a brochure that promises with misleading wording about covering the power train with wear and tear excluded.  When you make a claim, everything will be excluded as wear and tear.  Generally, only extended warranties issued by the manufacturers or by the used car section of a new car dealer are reliable.

Q13:  What is auto fraud?   The sale or leasing of vehicles (including motorcycles and  boats), with known defects and dangerous conditions, without proper disclosure is auto fraud.   These dangerous conditions may be flood or collision damage, or lemon auto histories that the dealer knew about.   Also, rolled back odometers and other cases of fraud may subject the dealer to harsh penalties.  Fraudulently putting a consumer into a lease when she thought she was buying the car, non disclosure of warranty restrictions and limitations, charging for items that weren't actually sold with the car, or certain car repair schemes may qualify.  The defendants can include insurance companies, car dealers, car manufacturers, extended warranty companies, service contract companies and car finance companies.  Fraud cases have even higher awards than normal lemon auto cases if they can be proved.  Juries and Judges rarely like the fraudulent concealment of serious defects that can injure you or your family.  These defects can cause serious injury to you and to others on the road far beyond the normal risks.  Fraud can include forged signatures, falsifying figures on a loan, and even selling a used lemon auto as a new "demonstrator."  California's Civil Code requires disclosing any collision damage amounting to over $500.00.  However, Kentucky has no such protection specifically in it's code.

Q14:  What can I expect if I try to handle this myself?  If your car is new, the new car dealer will normally refer you to the manufacturer.  After all, the dealer didn't make or design the new car.  Essentially, the lawsuits for lemon autos are always against the manufacturer, not the dealers or banks.  The dealers don’t “warranty” the vehicles they sell.  The manufacturers design, build, and manufacture the lemons so they are the ones that are primarily responsible.  However, dealers and lenders can be sued as well. The dealers only do the repair work for the manufacturer as their agents. In Kentucky unless the Dealer specifically knew of the defect at the time of sale, the dealer is exempt from the lemon law suit.  Other states normally allow the suit against the dealership.

The Dealer does the repair work.  However, when the manufacturer pays for the repair work, they will often pay the dealer only once even if he has to repair it again later.  Or manufacturers will pay a set flat fee for doing the repair.  Therefore, even if the repair takes 5 hours, the manufacturer may pay for only 3 hours.   As a result, some dealers do not want to do warranty work.   

The manufacturer will often deny that there is a defect.  Often, the manufacturer will offer to repair it over and over again, even if it can’t be repaired, hoping that you will eventually go away.  That can be a lot cheaper than litigation and refunding the price of the car.   

If your car is used, the unethical dealership will often try to blame it on you. This outrageous attitude may be difficult to comprehend, but it is common. The unethical used car dealership will normally claim that: (1) you caused the defect or collision damage; (2) deny that there is any problem; (3) that they had no way of knowing and that somehow you should have known about it, or (4) they will claim that the damage is very minor and that you should accept it.

These are the "standard" defenses.  Used car dealers are never going to admit that they suckered and defrauded you, no matter if it is their day to day practice or how blatant, calculated and disgusting the fraud was.   Even if the dealership agrees to settle with you out of court, they will often want you to sign a "release" stating that the settlement is "for a disputed and doubtful claim" and contains a "confidentiality clause" covering up how he put a car that could have killed you and others on the road just for profit.  His settlement with you is just a cost of "doing business" and thousands of others will never sue him.    

The suffering that unscrupulous Kentucky used car dealerships cause to unwary consumers is difficult to forgive and hard to forget. We have seen a lot of people file bankruptcy. Others have been injured and killed by cars that dealers knew were unsafe at any speed.  You may pay over book value and high interest rates for a used car that is worthless. Then you are stuck with making car payments for a vehicle you can't even use. Then you may not be able to buy another car and at the same time, have to pay for the worthless one. If you stop making payments, the car may be repossessed and then it will ruin your credit, and finally your happiness will be completely destroyed.  In such a case, don't sit there get serious legal help.  Take a moment to look at your options rather than just live with the problem.  

Q15:  Can't I return the car in 3 days?  If a person is selling something to you in your home, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has a rule that you have 3 days to revoke the contract.   Often state laws also repeat this guarantee.  Auto sales on the dealers lot do not qualify.  

Under the UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) you can revoke or rescind a contract for non-conforming goods.   However, to revoke or rescind a contract for goods, you have to return the goods immediately as soon as you have had a chance to inspect them.   Therefore, if you have just left the lot and you revoke the contract by immediately bringing back a car that has a poor engine, you have probably properly revoked the contract.  If you keep it 3 or more days, you have probably waited to long and you have accepted it.

Q16:  What if the warranty is expired or I have over 12 months/12,000 miles?  Your car may still be covered.  You will need to ask an attorney because the maximum time limit is 12 months after the warranty expires.  

Q17:  What does "as is" mean?   "As Is" means that you are responsible for any repairs and that items with wear and tear from being used, are not warranted.   Some part of the original warranty may be left over from the manufacturer.  For instance, if the used car only has 12,000 miles on it, you get the remainder of the 36,000 mile drive train warranty that almost all cars have.  Some manufacturers have even longer drive train warranties.

Q18:  How do I prevent buying a lemon auto? 

Insist on the following if you buy a car:

1)  Get a warranty from the used car dealer, even if it is a 30- day warranty.   Ask him and yourself if this is such a good car, why won’t he guarantee it?

2)  Get a statement from the dealer that the car has no collision damage and that it has not been returned to the dealer or the manufacturer for lemon law defects.  You can get a printout of it's warranty service history from the nearest auto dealership.

3)  TMU stands for true miles unknown.  Such cars have tampered odometers. LOOK OUT if this is printed in the paperwork anywhere.

4)  Take at least a 10 mile test drive in varying road conditions.

5)  Have a mechanic look and inspect the car first.  

6)  Research Car Fax, NHTSA, and any lemon auto sources for any warranty defect and repair info for your model.

7)  Carefully consider the extended warranty.  If the policy is from the car manufacturer or if you are purchasing it from a lot that also sells new cars, the policy is probably reputable. I recommend purchasing it if the price is affordable.  And, it should not have any disclaimers for wear and tear.

Q19:  Questions From a Client (used with the client's permission)

1)  "I contacted a lawyer in my area that I had gotten from The Kentucky Bar Association. The gentlemen not only told me he was not experienced with the lemon law but that I should continue and continue to bring the car to the dealer. He then told me that charges for this would be enormous and he would require $1,500 from me just to research the problem because no lawyer would take the chance of loosing and not being paid by the manufacturer.  What do I do?"

Answer:  I require a filing fee of $150.00 up front. That is Court Costs, not any attorneys fee, and if you win, you get that back.  If I don't collect, I don't charge....... PERIOD.  I normally receive what I can get out of the Car Manufacturer for attorney fees, plus 1/3 of the amount refunded amount to you after the vehicle loan is paid off as a contingency fee. No win, no cost to you over what the filing fee is.  The amount refunded to you is what I collect from.  The car manufacturer often pays a small amount towards your attorney fees.  However, this is normally only $500 dollars which doesn't even cover the cost of filing and drafting the petition.   I researched this long ago so I don't have to research it again.  You shouldn't be charged by an attorney for learning how to do his job.  You should not have to continue over and over again dealing with a lemon auto, after going 4 times to the dealer, with the same problem that effects the safety value or operation of your car.   

This is not legal advice. Any problem that you have is an individual case. These are the normal answers to frequently asked questions and reading them will give you a good understanding of the top issues in any lemon auto case.  We trust that this information is helpful.

If you have a question about your particular case you need to ask your attorney about your facts and your particular circumstances.

 

If you have been stuck with a lemon auto or if a defective car injured you or a loved, contact Nick C. Thompson for a Free Consultation.     

 Kentucky Lemon Auto Lawyers

 Lemon Auto Laws