had my lemon law hearing today

[harlenm]

It went well. They have 10 days to make a decision. I requested they replace my 2011 limited with a 2013 limited. I did not ask for any cash reimbursements, but I could have.

Will post an update when I get one.

 

[VinceL]

Good luck, and I hope you end up with the car you wanted! (one that works )

 

[dco43054]

Is replacement with a brand new unit one of the remedies in Connecticut?

Let us know how it goes.

Good luck.

 

[Bill #5 Explorer]

Good job. Good luck.

 

[harlenm]

Is replacement with a brand new unit one of the remedies in Connecticut?

Let us know how it goes.

Good luck.

Could have asked for a new car or cash. Could have also asked for reimbursement of any expenses, such as gas to dealer, property taxes, interest on loan, etc., but I didn't.

 

[rmp301]

Could have asked for a new car or cash. Could have also asked for reimbursement of any expenses, such as has to dealer, property taxes, interest on loan, etc., but I didn't.

Wait ..... isn't the 2013 Limited going to be new, or did I miss something here?

 

[harlenm]

Wait ..... isn't the 2013 Limited going to be new, or did I miss something here?

I'm saying that I had 2 choices, a new car, or a cash refund of my purchase price.

I chose to have the car replaced.

 

[harlenm]

The thing I thought was the strangest was that the engineer that was there from Ford admitted to being at the dealership one of the days my car was there, but did not look at my car or do anything with it. Then why was he there??

They also admitted they never looked to see if there were any defective parts up until they replaced the APIM, which did not work.

 

[Dr Plastic]

My experience with the Lemon law in VA is this. I filed a complaint with VWoA (Volkswagen of America) about a Passat W8 I had that was a MAJOR problem child. I filed my first complaint. They did not want to show up for the hearing and sent a letter instead claiming there was no problem. This was at 11203 miles. As time and problems built up I again filed a second complaint after the car was out of service 61 days, had 14 trips to the dealer and 24 work orders in the 12 months I owned it. VWoA decided that they would buy back the car. They only reimbursed me my payments including Sales tax and documentation fees at time of purchase minus a usage fe of 15 cents a mile based on the mileage at the time of the first complaint. I wound up pocketing around $8000! They will not reimburse gas to dealership or property taxes/registration fees as that is a usage fee implemented by the state and nothing to do with the actual vehicle.

I can actually write a book on this debacle. All my trials and tribulations can be found on the Volkswagen forums!

 

[gdecamp]

The thing I thought was the strangest was that the engineer that was there from Ford admitted to being at the dealership one of the days my car was there, but did not look at my car or do anything with it. Then why was he there??

They also admitted they never looked to see if there were any defective parts up until they replaced the APIM, which did not work.

Case closed!

Best of luck.

 

[13Sport]

It went well. They have 10 days to make a decision. I requested they replace my 2011 limited with a 2013 limited. I did not ask for any cash reimbursements, but I could have.

Will post an update when I get one.

In my experience with lemon law is they generally do not replace a vehicle with a newer model. If you ask for a replacement they will generally find another 2011 limited to replace it with, however I'm in California.

The best option is to always ask for a repurchase of the vehicle. With a repurchase you get EVERYTHING back in your pocket that you've paid out to date (down payment, any payments you made, tax, etc)... with that you're free to go buy a new 2013 if you want, or invest in another vehicle.

 

[LONO100]

sounds like its going in the right direction. i went through the same thing here in CA with a BMW dealership and won. i was assigned an investigator from the state who interviewed me and collected all of my documents. in CA, if you buy a brand new car and it goes in for service within the first year 3 times for the same reported problem without a proper repair, you can ask for restitution in the form of punitive damages or repair or replacement of the vehicle. i forget the exact figures off hand, but i told the investigator that i wasnt trying to sue for any money, i just wanted them to fix the problem, replace all of the parts that were affected with new parts, or replace the car with the same exact model vehicle. after i told the investigator that, and based on all of our documentation of the dealership screwing us over for the past year, he told me that he would make a full recommendation to the judge that the dealership concede to our demands when we went to court. the dealership did not want to give in and they wanted to take it to court thinking we wouldnt go that far. the investigator paid the BMW dealership a visit, and the next day, they agreed to completely overhaul the motor and repair everything free of charge. the service guy who was "taking care of us" during the 6+ visits while the our brand new car was all jacked up was later fired. hope you get a happy conclusion like we did!

 

[harlenm]

In my experience with lemon law is they generally do not replace a vehicle with a newer model. If you ask for a replacement they will generally find another 2011 limited to replace it with, however I'm in California.

The best option is to always ask for a repurchase of the vehicle. With a repurchase you get EVERYTHING back in your pocket that you've paid out to date (down payment, any payments you made, tax, etc)... with that you're free to go buy a new 2013 if you want, or invest in another vehicle.

I requested a 2013. I told them I felt like I've been a test engineer for Ford for the last 14 months. There are upwards of 30 TSB's out for 2011's, and I said I wasn't willing to go through all the same problems that I've experienced already.

I did not want a refund because I don't want to start into another 5 year loan.

 

[13Sport]

I requested a 2013. I told them I felt like I've been a test engineer for Ford for the last 14 months. There are upwards of 30 TSB's out for 2011's, and I said I wasn't willing to go through all the same problems that I've experienced already.

I did not want a refund because I don't want to start into another 5 year loan.

You should probably rethink the math. With the amount of money you are getting back from the repurchase, you could turn around and put 100% of it back down on the 2013 and be in a 24-36 month loan for the same payments (or less) than you are paying now. They send you back ALL of the money you've spent to date, AND they send a check to your lien holder for the total payoff of the vehicle. It would be the equivalent of having driven the car free for 2+ years. You wouldn't have to get into another 5 year loan.

 

[harlenm]

You should probably rethink the math. With the amount of money you are getting back from the repurchase, you could turn around and put 100% of it back down on the 2013 and be in a 24-36 month loan for the same payments (or less) than you are paying now. They send you back ALL of the money you've spent to date, AND they send a check to your lien holder for the total payoff of the vehicle. It would be the equivalent of having driven the car free for 2+ years. You wouldn't have to get into another 5 year loan.

I did the math. If I requested a refund they would deduct an amount for the current mileage. I have almost 25,000 miles on it, so that would have been a deduction of close to $10,000.

My current payoff is $34,000, which would have left me only a few thousand to use a down payment towards a new car.

If I had low miles I might have asked for a refund.

 

[blwnsmoke]

I did the math. If I requested a refund they would deduct an amount for the current mileage. I have almost 25,000 miles on it, so that would have been a deduction of close to $10,000.

My current payoff is $34,000, which would have left me only a few thousand to use a down payment towards a new car.

If I had low miles I might have asked for a refund.

What is the per mile fee? Even at 20 cents a mile, that is $5,000. How do you come up with $10,000 (just curious)

 

[harlenm]

What is the per mile fee? Even at 20 cents a mile, that is $5,000. How do you come up with $10,000 (just curious)

number of miles x contract price / 120,000

 

[13Sport]

I did the math. If I requested a refund they would deduct an amount for the current mileage. I have almost 25,000 miles on it, so that would have been a deduction of close to $10,000.

My current payoff is $34,000, which would have left me only a few thousand to use a down payment towards a new car.

If I had low miles I might have asked for a refund.

The mileage offset is from the miles on the vehicle at the time the problem was first reported. And the mileage offset can't be close to .40 per mile. They can only charge you for usage prior to the problem. CA has a specific equation for the offset, I'm sure CT does too, but there's no way it's .40 per mile.

Like I said before... they send a check to your lender for the payoff amount, separate from the check they send you for the repurchase. for example:

say you had driven 11,000 miles before reporting the problem
say ct charges .10 per mile (unlikely)
say you've made 14 payments of 500$ each
say you put 3000 down on the vehicle
say your payoff is 34000

You are awarded a repurchase:
you get a check for
$ 8,900.00
-3000 down
-7000 payments
-(1100) mileage offset

your lender gets a check for
$ 34,000.00 (payoff amount)


you have 8900 to go put down on a new vehicle
(you actually have a ****load more, because my numbers are ridiculously conservative)

 

[13Sport]

number of miles x contract price / 120,000

I know that's the equation in CA, wasn't sure if it also applied to CT

it's also number of miles at first report of incident, not number of miles on the vehicle

 

[harlenm]

I know that's the equation in CA, wasn't sure if it also applied to CT

it's also number of miles at first report of incident, not number of miles on the vehicle

I've never read that it was number of miles at first incident. Just number of miles.


Edit, I am correct.

The statutory mileage deduction is computed by multiplying the present mileage of the vehicle times the contract price and dividing that figure by 120,000.