Lemon Law

2011 – Another Rough Year for BMW
The honor of the highest number of Lemon Law claims at Norman Taylor & Associates in 2011 goes to BMW for the second year in a row.

As the chart shows, 2011 has been a particularly difficult year for German automobile manufacturers, which includes BMW, Mercedes, and Volkswagen Group (see Fig 1). German manufacturers comprised about 46% of the total Lemon Law claims made by Norman Taylor & Associates in 2011. When we look back at 2010, we see a similar trend with the German manufacturers, which were about 40% of the Lemon Law claims.

Figure 1

It should be noted that there are many factors that affect these numbers, one of the most important being the yearly production figures. As an example, if Ford reports a yearly production of 2 million and BMW reports 1.5 million for the same year, then, by the laws of statistics, Ford will have more Lemon cars simply due to the production of more vehicles than BMW.

BMW had almost twice as many lemon cases at Norman Taylor & Associates as GMC. This may partly be attributed to the defective high pressure fuel pump problems and the subsequent recall that affected many BMW vehicles. BMW still managed to sell the most luxury cars in 2011 as reported by Edmunds.com, followed by Mercedes. This is depicted in our graph.

Japanese automakers did not suffer as many claims from our office which is contradictory to the sales figures. Despite part shortages brought on by the earthquake at the close of the first quarter of 2011, Toyota still managed to make the highest sales in midsized and compact cars, as well as minivans. Perhaps they make the better cars?

Consumer Reports asks Who Makes the Best Cars?

Table 1

There are a number of points where our graph and the Consumer Reports figures are in agreement, for example, General Motors, Mercedes Benz and Ford were rated lower than other vehicles. The one exception would be BMW, which is surprising because based on our case load we would have rated the reliability of BMW much lower.

When examining this juxtaposition between our data and that of Consumer Reports there are a number of factors to consider. The number of cars produced versus number of lemons produced would be the best indication of who truly can take the trophy of who makes the best car. Unfortunately, our data is limited to vehicles sold in our geographic area and as a result that does not necessarily make a case for the entire nation. Information regarding the nationwide lemon law buybacks by model would not be easy to come by and we can guarantee that manufacturers would not let that cat out of the bag.

Other factors that have contributed to overall reliability in the eyes of consumers are the cost cutting measures taken by manufacturers in an effort to increase their bottom line. For example, Volkswagen shifted their focus for the 2011 Jetta, indicating they were catering to drivers who were interested in saving money. Price was a major selling point for the Jetta, but there where drawbacks such as the use of less expensive materials and a downgrade in interior quality. Those cost cutting efforts by Volkswagen gave rise to increased concern by consumers with interior fit and finish.  

Ford also took a marked decrease in comparison to last year’s Consumer Reports ratings due to ongoing issues with the MyFord Touch system. Electronic problems have increased drastically in comparison to vehicles from just four years ago. We have always been of the opinion that with more gadgets and parts come more opportunities for those parts to go haywire. Additionally, consumer electronics makers supply the electronic components found in vehicles, most of which are not designed to sustain the kind of physical shocks of the highways and extreme temperatures to which cars can be exposed.