Both dealer fraud and lemon law refer to the consumers who after purchasing a car faced problems with it. If your case arose because of the dealer’s unlawful actions, you fall under the dealer fraud case. If your car has manufacturer defects, i.e. the manufacturer is to be blamed for; you deal with a lemon law.
Every US state has a separate legislation on the lemon and dealer fraud cases. For example, California lemon law aims to protect buyers and in some cases may even make the manufacturer replace or refund the vehicle. CA lemon law is one of the strongest around the whole country giving the best solution to your case if possible. Regarding the dealer fraud law, we may say that no matter the state it is designed to protect consumers shopping for vehicles and to punish the dealers who took advantage of their customers.
About lemon law
Lemon law is typical of American origin. It aims to remedy the products, basically vehicles, which fail to properly meet the quality and performance standards. Your car will be treated as a lemon if after 3 and more repair attempts the same problems comes to the surface and bothers you. Lemon law is designed to make “lemonade out of a lemon”, i.e. to dig a solution in your best interest.
Besides the defects, your new car should also have a manufacturer warranty to have sufficient ground that the car is their product. If the manufacturer violated the warranty, you and your lemon attorney can claim a compensation.
What refers to used cars, they also can be subject to lemon law, just submit evidence that the problems existed before the purchase.
In all cases, you should contact a lemon attorney who has sufficient experience in all lemon cases. No matter what is your case, he/she will do their best to work to your advantage.
About dealer fraud
Federal and state laws regulate dealer fraud cases. The law aims to protect the consumer and punish the dealership which takes advantage of the customer. One of the dealer fraud examples is when the dealer doesn’t say that the car was previously used as a rental, or undergone crashes and/or other damages.
When you find out that your dealer’s decisive action, you must gather some evidence to show that the dealer misrepresented the material facts which caused you financial loss. If the court makes a decision to satisfy your claim, it may let you surrender the defective vehicle and demand a refund from the dealer.
Depending on the severity of your cases, you can contact an auto dealer fraud attorney for support.
Lemon VS Dealer Fraud
Very often you may misunderstand these two terms. Though there are some connection and overlap between them, which is the object of claim: the vehicle, nevertheless the differences prevail the similarities.
The lemon law deals with:
- Lawsuits against the manufacturer
- New and sometimes used vehicles
- Vehicles under the original warranty of the manufacturer
While dealer fraud deals with
- Lawsuit against the auto dealer
- Mostly used vehicles
- The vehicle which may have no defects or problems
- Any vehicle regardless the warranty
- Intentional fraud
Though both refer to the purchase of a defective car, nevertheless they have differences. The focus of dealer fraud is the improper and decisive behavior of the dealer while selling the vehicle. Lemon cases arise because of the car defects.
Avoid fraud!
When you come to a mutual agreement with a dealer or seller, always make it in a written form. Even a little verbal promise may lead to certain problems later. So, ask the seller to put it in a contract. When having written evidence, you can force them easily than the ones made verbally. Another important step to make before buying a car is the online search. There are such internet search engines as CarFax or Autocheck which can tell you about the “life story” of a vehicle etc.
So, even after all this information you find yourself as a victim of a dealer fraud or lemon, there is no other way out but to meet the attorney and start a procedure against the dealer or manufacturer.
