At Norman Taylor & Associates we wrote the book on Lemon law. Every day we see defective automobiles and trucks. Many of the manufactures are issuing recalls and TSB’s (Technical Service Bulletins) on a weekly basis. Here’s the connection. If you hear manufacturers of any mechanical or electro-mechanical device spouting on about how their products never have problems, please feel free to roll your eyes and do that, “cover your mouth and cough while mouthing &*&&^#!”

Manufacturing perfection isn’t in the cards, no matter who the manufacturer is. As the British would say, “it just isn’t on.” Statistics, a branch of mathematics dealing with chance and probability, absolutely predicts that if you make enough of anything some of them will be defective. There is even a good chance that if you manufacture tens of thousands, even millions of the same thing there will be a disproportionate number of defective products.

High-volume manufacturing is what makes Lemon Law cases and gets the Maytag Man out there repairing washing machines and handling recalls. Sorry Mr. Maytag Man the vacation is over, you’ll have to tape your favorite episodes of the All My Children.

After poking around the internet it quickly became obvious that this is a widespread defect. As one who looks at hundreds, even thousands of repair orders every week, many of them for BMW automobiles, I have seen many instances of this defect and discussed them with the owners.

The following are some symptoms of BMW’s high pressure fuel pump problem:

• The vehicle hesitates when starting (engine not getting fuel properly)
• The vehicle loses power while driving
• The check engine light comes on
• The vehicle goes to limp mode

This is when the driver may experience his or her own “Fear Factor”. If this happens while you are on the freeway in the fast lane it can be pretty darn terrifying.

It really seems serious enough that a recall should have been issued. Hardly a week goes by that we don’t receive calls from BMW owners where one of the defects is with the high pressure fuel pump. The obvious reason is that BMW would have to install new fuel pumps on tens of thousands of vehicles. The cost to do this would be tens of millions of dollars.

BMW knows it’s bad, so much so they have issued a special limited extended warranty of 10 years or 120,000 miles on the fuel system whichever comes first. These pumps usually cost somewhere around $3,000.00. If as part of a repair you have to replace this component 3 times…well, the math is simple. I think, as they say, “the jury is still out’ on where this will go, either for the consumer or for BMW.

If you’re vehicle has been affected by this defect contact a qualified California Lemon Law attorney and learn how you can protect yourself.

The true test of a sincere apology is not so much what the wrong doer says, it is what he, she or they do to make up for the damage done. Talk is indeed cheap: it must be; so many people are doing it. So my question to Toyota is; what have you done since all this attention was focused on eight million potentially unsafe vehicles?

From my perspective you gave us utter nonsense about defective floor mats, and to add insult to foolishness, expected us to believe it! Not satisfied with that fairy tale, you then said, oh, by the way, we’re putting a shim in the pedal assembly to help it not to stick. We are further told that you have investigated the electronic throttle controls (the most likely cause) and assert that absolutely nothing is wrong with these controls. And that is it!

Apologies may be appropriate, but more important is doing something. Owners want to feel confident, safe, for themselves and their families. Owners need to know, what are you really doing?

I would add this advice to Toyota from a man Japanese manufacturing chose to name their highest prize for quality.

“Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that brings friends with them.” W. Edwards Deming

The first and most important rule is know what you’re buying. But let’s say despite all of your diligence, the car starts to sputter when you try to accelerate up to freeways speeds or you discover some other serious defect two days after you buy it. It is very important to present the vehicle for repairs and make a record of it within the 30-day period and if the problem isn’t handled to go back.

Ideally, you’ll present the car, they’ll do the work and give you a repair order documenting when you brought it to them. But what do you do if the dealer says, sorry we’re busy, bring it in next week (after the warranty is up)? Or, they claim it is a normal characteristic of the vehicle and refuse to repair it or give you a document?

It is vital to any case you may want to present to have evidence of presenting it for repair within the warranty period. If polite persistence doesn’t get you a repair order, you can write a letter to the dealer stating the date and time you brought the car in for service, whom you spoke to, the defects with the car that you wanted to fix and the exact response. You can have someone go with you who can provide corroboration that you went there. You should save things such as voice mails and e-mails from the dealership that indicate they knew of the problem within the warranty period.

If you have a used car that can’t be fixed don’t assume you have no rights under the lemon law just because it is used. A qualified lemon law attorney may be able to help you get a refund or replacement. The job is made easier if you’ve got a paper trail.

It’s pretty obvious that a defective vehicle (a lemon) is not worth what it should be. If you tried to sell the vehicle in its defective condition, the buyer would want a substantial discount in price taking the defect into account. Just like the car that has been involved in an accident, you may end up owing more on your lemon vehicle than you can get when you try to sell it. Gap insurance will not protect you if in this scenario. You’re on your own, or, you can seek the assistance of a lemon law attorney. If successful you can recover not only your down payment and all payments made up to the time of settlement, but also the lender is paid off entirely and title to your lemon gets transferred to the manufacturer buying back. It actually works out much better than gap insurance.

Not necessarily. A recent study of Mercedes dealers indicated that their profitability depends on service more than sales. When dealers perform work on your car under warranty they send the bill to the manufacturer for reimbursement. In cases where the repair is not covered under warranty or the warranty has expired the consumer is responsible for repair costs. When there is a question of whether or not the defect is covered under warranty, the dealer asks for approval for a tear down to inspect the defect and submits the claim for warranty approval with the caveat that the consumer may be responsible for the costs of a tear down and repairs if it is decided that the warranty does not cover the defect. When Mercedes put out cars that broke down every few thousand miles, the dealers were raking in the dough. Oddly enough, as Mercedes has tried to improve their product quality, some dealerships have felt a financial pinch.

It’s tough to trust a system where the business that sells you the car has a disincentive to make sure it’s going to be free from defects. This is just another reason why consumers need to know their rights under California lemon law or the state in which they live.

For example, you describe the problem as “check engine light comes on, car stalls.” The service writer suggests it might be something wrong with the Emission Control System, so he writes down “ECS problem” This is not what you said. Be absolutely sure the service write puts down exactly what you tell him to write down. It matters!

But what about hiring an attorney to enforce your rights? Isn’t that expensive? An attorney who has experience representing consumers in lemon law knows he will be compensated by his client’s right under the law to recover attorneys fees as part of the recovery from the manufacturer. The law was designed recognizing that consumers have limited funds and sought to encourage consumers to pursue their rights, and to encourage attorneys to represent these consumers, by ensuring full compensation for time expended regardless of the consumer’s monetary recovery.

The California Supreme Court said: “… the primary financial benefit the Song-Beverly Act [lemon law] offers to consumers who sue thereunder to enforce their rights: their ability, if successful, to recover their ‘attorney’s fees based on actual time expended.’ Such fees generally comprise the lion’s share of the litigation costs, and the prospect of having to pay attorney fees even if one wins a lawsuit can serve as a powerful disincentive to the unfortunate purchaser of a malfunctioning automobile. By permitting prevailing buyers to recover their attorney fees in addition to costs and expenses, our Legislature has provided injured consumers strong encouragement to seek legal redress in a situation in which a lawsuit might not otherwise have been economically feasible.”

So don’t let the idea that hiring an attorney to represent your rights in the context of a Lemon Law claim back you down from going forward. This law was made for you if you own a “lemon.” Use it.

In a period of two weeks I have had two ladies contact me to review their prospective lemon law cases. They both had defects which they had reported with regularity to the servicing dealer. Both presumed that the dealer was performing the required maintenance on their vehicle, which had come as part of the purchase. As it turned out in both instances, the dealer failed to advise the client during their multiple warranty repair visits, that their vehicle was due for some sort of scheduled maintenance service. Later, after the lemon law claim became clear, the manufacturer blamed the client for failing to properly maintain the vehicle, which they maintained was the true source of the defect. There was enough plausibility that I had to decline both cases.

But it was disturbing to me that a client who had paid for maintenance as part of the purchase contract would have the duty to bring the maintenance schedule to the attention of the servicing dealer. Sure enough, in the warranty manual in each case, the duty lies squarely on the shoulders of the buyer. Nonetheless, what type of operation would neglect to point this out to a customer, especially with the idea of creating a repeat customer? I own a vehicle where maintenance came as part of the purchase price. My dealer keeps me informed always when my vehicle is due for maintenance. I don’t instruct them to perform it – although according to the manual it is my duty. My dealer wants my business, so he takes care of me. They bring to my attention anything that is due and it gets done.

In the two instances cited above, neither woman was informed they were due for maintenance, though it came as part of their purchase contract. Both told me they instructed the dealer to do whatever was necessary. Apparently this wasn’t good enough. But for the lack of maintenance, they both had legitimate lemon law claims. Failure to properly maintain a vehicle is a potential defense in a lemon law claim – if it relates to the defect about which the owner complained. Unfortunately for these two ladies, for lack of proper maintenance that related to their defects, I had to turn down their cases. Now they may be stuck with a vehicle that is plagued with a problem that will never get right, or will cost them countless visits until a technician is lucky enough to remedy the defect; probably after the warranty expires and she has to pay for the service.

Did the dealer see a lemon coming down the road? Is this why the dealer chose not to give the client the “heads up” that maintenance was due – because they knew they could blame the customer for lack of maintenance as a defense to the lemon law claim? Having practiced California lemon law for over 22 years, it would come as no surprise if this were true. Just when I think I’ve seen everything…

The moral of the story is, don’t rely on your dealer to keep you informed when maintenance is due on your vehicle – especially if you have already had the vehicle in for warranty repairs repeatedly. Don’t jeopardize your lemon law rights by giving the manufacturer ammunition to use against you by failing to adhere to your maintenance schedule.

There has been recent media interest on this subject due to the Chrysler and General Motors bankruptcies and whether the “new” companies emerging from bankruptcy will be responsible for product liability claims brought against the old. Many articles have described the horrific details of people whose lives have been devastated forever due to defective vehicles.

Anyone who has worked in the field of lemon law is continually amazed at the ways owners manage to cope with their problem cars and trucks. But when safety is at issue, putting up with a defect is the wrong thing to do. Lemon laws in California and many other states have special provisions for serious safety defects. If you think your car may fall into that category and you’ve been brushed off by the dealership or manufacturer, you should contact a lemon law attorney.