Quote:
Originally Posted by dannym
If you bought it from a dealer, third party warranty or not, they should take it back. I believe you have a certain amount of time to do that under the Lemon Laws.
Danny
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Ummm, wait a minute, not so fast. Even with a brand new car, to trigger the lemon law, In California, where the buyer CDplayer lives,you have to have it back to the dealer for the SAME problem at least three succesive times, with no success in fixing. And, keep in mind you need written documentation of the date and mileage for EACH visit (usually the repair order) and it's good to keep notes of who said what to who with each visit and phone call.. Dealers try to avoid getting to the three time limit by writing the first repair order then keeping the same repair order "open" till they get the problem fixed.
Learnt about all this as I got a NEW 2001 Lemon Volvo C70 coupe that went back to the dealer in Calif. more than 5 times for the same problem. Dealer was awful, refused to return calls, got seats greasy and dirty every time worked on the car, spilt coffee on the console, rental cars got flat tires, car seemed to spend as much time in the shop as home, only 7k on it for the whole year.
A good lemon law lawyer finally had to be used. We got ALL our money back, less attorney's fees of $2000 and the mileage deduction we had to make for the miles it was driven that year.
The manufacturers HATE to buy back a lemon car. (They have to have branded "LEMON" titles that will show on CARFAX), and they are dogs on the market. Our very same exact 1 year old $39k Volvo with 7k on it sold as a Lemon car on ebay for just a few months after Volvo NA in New Jersey bought it back, sent it to NJ and later sold it to a NJ dealer who stuck it on ebay where I saw it get knocked down for only $24K, now, that's a BIG depreciation hit!!!
Plus Volvo NA lied on the Lemon law disclosure on the title, they said "Owner complained of vibrations but we tested the car and couldn't find any" YEAH RIGHT. Our complaints involved water leaks and cracking and groaning noises that could never be fixed - and if Volvo couldn't find any problems, how come they bought the car back as a Lemon?
The manufacturer would rather get you to keep the fixed Lemon car, or failing that, offer you another new car just like it. I would just say "NO".
And, its even stricter with USED cars. In California the Lemon Law protection is much worse for USED cars, and may be next to worthless in thisw case.
Either this Mercedes has a SIGNIFICANT "pre existing condition" which the dealer knew about but HID, the buyer would want to try and unwind the deal and get his money back, on the basis of fraud, (But did the buyer buy the car as is or do his due diligence before purchasing?....... OR the car did NOT have a "pre exsisting condition" in which case he might need a lawyer to try to get the warranty company to honor the claim for covering the repair under warranty