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Stupid Dealer Tricks
The gauntlet begins at the dealers. Manufacturers train their dealership personnel in ways to help them identify and deal with customers who might be developing potential lemon claims. Of course, the easiest way to prevent a lemon claim would be to fix the vehicle, but sometimes that’s just too hard for them.
We Can’t Take Your Car Now
When Mr. and Mrs. Jones tried to make an appointment to get their car fixed the first time, and the dealer told them that they were too busy and that it would be two weeks before they could work on the car, this was the opening salvo in what would become Mr. and Mrs. Jones’s personal lemon war. Nothing wears the car owner down more surely than the sheer amount of time it takes to get anything done. The dealer and manufacturer know this. They also know that time-wasted time-is on their side. |
Repair Order Alteration
One of the tests for determining whether a vehicle is a lemon is whether there have been repeated repairs for the same problem.2 To avoid this, the dealership will often write up the same problem in different ways to make it look like different problems. This is subtle, and you might not even notice it, so pay attention when the service writer at the dealership fills in your repair order.
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."3 This is not what you said. Be absolutely certain the service writer puts down exactly what you tell him to write down. It matters!
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