Lemon Law: What Would You Do?

[HeisenbergFX4]

I went through the Lemon Law process with Ford over a 2018 F150 that would drop down into 1st gear going down the Interstate at about 70 MPH.

After several attempts to fix it through my dealer Ford was great actually buying it back from me under the Lemon Law without me needing to hire an attorney.

My advice is to document everything.

Write everything down in a notebook dates, times anyone you speak with.

Take photos of anything related to this whole process.

Something I found out about Indiana Lemon Law was the 30 days were business days that it has to be out of service and that timer started from the day it got dropped off at the dealer no matter how long it sits waiting for them to look at it.

If you decide to go after the Lemon Law do not talk to the dealer contact Fiat Chrysler directly and be prepared for a long drawn out process.

From my first call to Ford and applying to be considered for them to buy back my F150 it took almost 4 months before they finally handed me a check and we turned over our truck.

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[Hootbro]

Yeah, you need to get a boot in the dealers ass to get something done. The "still diagnosing" line is bullshit and is code for "you are not important enough and paid customer work is priority". It is not like they have had a tech on it for three weeks straight and are stumped.

I will not internet lawyer you on lemon laws but just say that if you decide to actually pursue it, get away from the emotional attachment because you cannot have it both ways and expect to come out with a reasonable outcome.

Hope it gets figured out for you in the positive.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Yeah, you need to get a boot in the dealers ass to get something done. The "still diagnosing" line is bullshit and is code for "you are not important enough and paid customer work is priority". It is not like they have had a tech on it for three weeks straight and are stumped.

I will not internet lawyer you on lemon laws but just say that if you decide to actually pursue it, get away from the emotional attachment because you cannot have it both ways and expect to come out with a reasonable outcome.

Hope it gets figured out for you in the positive.

A side note to that though when I talked to an attorney on lemon laws he told me the last thing I should do is bother the dealer if I intended to go the lemon law route.

The longer it sits the more days roll off the deadline.

 

[Hootbro]

A side note to that though when I talked to an attorney on lemon laws he told me the last thing I should do is bother the dealer if I intended to go the lemon law route.

The longer it sits the more days roll off the deadline.

Yeah, I am with you on that.

My comment on putting a boot to the dealers ass is meant to diplomatically push down on them by either direct discussion and/or engage and bring outside corporate pressure to get things rolling.

Others have already alluded to it that this is no where near close to starting a lemon law claim and is currently a lazy dealership experience issue that needs to get work first.

 

[Chestnut]

So I'll second this. After my JK, I purchased a ZR2 brand new. Fun little truck but from day 1 I had infotainment issues. I had taken it to the dealer 3 or 4 times and they replaced the unit, some harnesses, etc. and no sooner than I'd get out of the parking lot, the issue persisted. Such a silly little issue with no REAL safety concern but it rubbed me wrong that a $4X,XXX truck was having issues. In FL at least, our rules are 30 days in the shop or 3 attempts then you contact the BBB for Lemon arbitration. Basically, the BBB does a lot of the work for you but YOU still have to do some legwork. After a month of this, and getting calls from GM corporate, I was told to A. submit in writing that I am beginning a Lemon Law process and B. I would have to afford GM one more good-faith attempt to correct this.

Interesting I had a canyon that had an infotainment issue that was intermittant. GM gave me an extended component coverage for the radio but never "Fixed" the issue after multiple attempts. I just think their infotainment was @$)@. Mine would also random turn the radio volume to full for 3 seconds. Don't have a tight hold on the wheel cause that'll make you jump.

 

[Sunbeam63]

Just to provide an update to this thread:

Thank you all for your comments. I ended up reaching out to Jeep Cares, and got a case representative to help expedite and follow up with the dealer. On September 1st, I was told they were instructed to replace intake camshaft and rockers, my representative got the part expedited (moved up from a Sept. 27th receive date) and I picked up my truck on the 20th. It appears that the intake camshaft and/or rocker arms were the fix. I still don't understand how any of those parts could fail like that and cause misfiring after 2k miles.

So far the truck is running well. I'm disappointed that at 2000 miles, it was held up for 45 days, but I am working on getting compensation for that. The dealer appears to have done a good job, although they scratched up my air filter housing assembly, so I'll work with them to get it replaced. As I explained to my representative today, I still want the truck, but this experience did suck the fun out of owning a new truck. I am glad to see the priority I was given to get the truck back on the road.

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