Do You Have a Laundered Lemon?
Car Manufacturers
Are Putting "LAUNDERED LEMON CARS" Back on The
Road!
Ever wonder what happens to all those lemon cars and lemon
trucks and lemon motorcycles the manufacturers buy back?
They often end up right back on the street.
These repurchased cars and repurchased trucks are often
called laundered lemons. Most states require that a consumer
who buys a vehicle that was repurchased under the Lemon Law
must be told about the repurchase. Still, some dealers don’t
tell consumers that they are selling a laundered lemon.
If your new motor vehicle turns out to be a laundered lemon
car or a laundered lemon truck, you’re not alone. Call
us at 1-888-331-6422 or email us
today for a Free Laundered Lemon Case Review!
What is a "Laundered
Lemon"?
Your Right to Laundered Lemon Warnings
How They Try to Get Around the Law
Faking Legal Compliance
Are You a Victim?
How Can You Avoid Buying Someone Else's
Lemon?
What's a Laundered Lemon Worth?
How Many Lemons are Bought Back?
What
is a "Laundered Lemon"?
A Laundered Lemon Car is any vehicle that has been repurchased
by the manufacturer (because of endless complaints and/or
deadly defects) and then resold to an unsuspecting consumer
without divulging all the defects or the vehicle's history.
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Your
Right to Laundered Lemon Warnings
The Lemon Law in Ohio (like most states) prohibits lemon
laundering. Ohio law requires manufacturers to do three things
after repurchasing a vehicle.
1. Brand
the Title as a Lemon;
2. Warn the Buyer with a Written
List of the Defects before the sale; and
3. Give the Buyer a One Year Warranty.
Plus, if the vehicle had a deadly defect, it's
not allowed to be resold in Ohio at all - ever!
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How They
Try to Get Around the Law
One popular method of bypassing the law is for manufacturers
to call their repurchase of a vehicle a "goodwill" buy
back, so they can claim that the vehicle is not covered by
the Lemon Law.
Another method is to ship the vehicle out of
state where it is then sent to an auto auction and purchased
by a car dealer. When it is finally sold to a consumer, the
dealer will usually deny any knowledge of its lemon history,
despite the availability of the complete warranty repair
history.
After buying back a vehicle in states like Ohio, where title
branding is required, car manufacturers can move the lemon
vehicle to a state that does not require branding or one
that does not recognize the prior state's brand. Consequently,
the title is left unmarked.
Even in cases where the title is branded, consumers
may still remain at a disadvantage, because they do not actually
see the title until weeks later.
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Faking
Legal Compliance
Occasionally, manufacturers and car dealers do feign compliance
with the law by identifying only one or two of the many complaints
made by the previous owner of the lemon car. Other evasion
techniques include removing the word "WARNING" from
the top of the disclosure document and placing the disclosure
document within a large stack of documents, then spreading
the stack out in a way that leaves the signature lines visible
while the top half of the document is hidden by the stack
itself. As a result, buyers often unknowingly sign a form
acknowledging that the vehicle is a lemon, when in fact,
they had no idea. In such a case, the signed form should
have no legal effect on your rights.
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Are You
a Victim?
Because car manufacturers have found a number of ways to
conceal the lemon history of repurchased vehicles, you may
find yourself to be another unsuspecting victim of lemon
laundered cars.
If you discover that you have unknowingly purchased
a laundered lemon vehicle, seek legal counsel immediately.
Ronald Burdge has effectively represented a
number of clients in laundered lemon car cases, from Kia
to Corvette, and regardless of their law-dodging method,
manufacturers and dealers are being held accountable for
the part they play in this lemon laundering saga.
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How Can You Avoid Buying
Someone Else's Lemon?
Check the car's prior ownership history before you buy it. Ask the dealer where
they got the vehicle or who owned it. If the dealer says they can't tell you
that information, be careful. There is no law that prevents a car dealer from
telling the truth.
Write down the "Vehicle Identification
Number" and do a free Internet title search on the Free
Experian Auto History Lemon Detector ,
which can turn up a Lemon Law Buyback in the title history.
You can cross-check the results on
AutoCheck,
to be sure you don't end up with someone else's lemon.
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What
are Laundered Lemon Cars Worth?
Think you paid too much for what may be a laundered lemon?
Check out NADA's
consumer guides to vehicle values, where you can get
current valuations or older editions of the NADA
book over the Internet. If it rolls, floats or flies,
they know what it's worth.
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How
Many Lemons are Bought Back?
No one knows for sure, but in one lawsuit it was discovered
that Chrysler alone bought back 45,000 Lemon Cars in about
four years-and resold them all over the country for a total
of $1 billion.
Who knows how many Ford, General Motors, and
the importers have bought back . . . one thing is clear-reselling
lemon cars is a big business.
But you don't have to be the victim in their
Lemon Laundering scheme! |
