GREAT Deal on a Used Car Yesterday!!! But, the Dealer just called to say it's a

[SVTCOBRA]

LEMON and they did not disclose this information before doing the deal yesterday. All paper work was done and the car was delivered.

No, did not happen to me. One of my co-workers had called me last week about the deal and I have given him based on the numbers and his specific situation.

The car has 35K miles on it and he did get a bumper to bumper 100K mile extended warranty.

The owner's wife had been driving it until delivery.

Co-worker was told today that the reason GM had re-purchased the car was because the prior owner claimed that the brakes had locked up. The owner's wife had been driving it since the car was repurchased and has been fine. The dealership could never reproduce the problem.The dealership gave them the option of bringing back the car. There was no trade involved. Co-worker has researched and this car fits the needs of his special needs child because of the size.I was blown away when he called me for advice and still unsure.....My only immediate advice was to confirm that the warranty he bought wasn't void by the car being a lemon.

What would you do???

[spacy9]

Is there anyway he can verify that the car is indeed a lemon? Call up GM, check with Carfax, etc...? I never trust a car dealer (no offense to any car dealers out there) but maybe they realized they were losing to much money on the deal and want out? Maybe the owners wife wants the car? Don't know, seems weird that the owner would let his wife drive a car that may have serious issues (unless she has a large life insurance policy).

I'd check into it more before making any decision. Did they give him a time limit?

[SVTCOBRA]

Is there anyway he can verify that the car is indeed a lemon? Call up GM, check with Carfax, etc...? I never trust a car dealer (no offense to any car dealers out there) but maybe they realized they were losing to much money on the deal and want out? Maybe the owners wife wants the car? Don't know, seems weird that the owner would let his wife drive a car that may have serious issues (unless she has a large life insurance policy).

I'd check into it more before making any decision. Did they give him a time limit?

I called my neighbor who works at my local Nissan dealer and he said the exact same thing!! That they may have realized that they were loosing money and wanted it back!!!

I called my co-worker and left him a phone message to check all service records AND carfax.

[bschurr]

FWIW - If it is a true lemon and purchased back by the auto manufacture under the Lemon Law, the VIN will be flagged and any dealer (and Car fax) should be noted as such.

[zozoka1212]

Ouch,

I would ask for all the previous repair papers to see what really happened. But would probably ask another dealer to pull the info. I would never trust the same dealer to do it.

I am interested to see actually what happenes with the lemon cars. Are they still property of the dealership or the car company? What action they do to prevent to happen again.

Can they sell the car again? I guess it is like buying refurbished items.

Maybe Steve or Poyzi can ask this question at work. If they ok with it.

[pfarmer]

Ouch,

I would ask for all the previous repair papers to see what really happened. But would probably ask another dealer to pull the info. I would never trust the same dealer to do it.

I am interested to see actually what happenes with the lemon cars. Are they still property of the dealership or the car company? What action they do to prevent to happen again.

Can they sell the car again? I guess it is like buying refurbished items.

Maybe Steve or Poyzi can ask this question at work. If they ok with it.

In the case of lemons it comes down to the lemon law which is more or less state specific. From what I see in many cases the car can be fixed but there is a tie in from one owner to the next for the same issues that caused it to be classified as a lemon.

Perry

[spacy9]

Any update?

[SVTCOBRA]

When the dealership called, they just told my co-worker that they would like them to come back in to sign one more document.They didn't specify what it was.Co-worker asked what document and they said it was a document saying that they knew the car was a lemon before purchasing it.

Their lawyer advised them to return the car and that's what they did.The GM dealership continued to try and sell the car to them as they returned it. SOOOOO, they are looking again.

Co-worker hasn't had the best luck with cars. Had a Dodge SUV lemon that they had Chrysler buy back.

[Poyzinous]

Thats a bit painful. I dont know about lemon law much, but I'll check around. I never looked into this thread. If the car I was looking at was a lemon, I'd find out why, and if it was something (relatively) small, I'd buy it if it was really cheap and came with a big warranty. Thats just me though.

[SteveTheTech]

North Carolina seems to have some interesting and strict rules when it comes to a potential buy back. ( http://www.north-carolina-lemo...w.htm )

If the dealer took the car back before the manufacturer was notified and resold it would not have "technically" been a lemon. If they were indeed brought back in to sign a lemon consent form, but then also have a 100k warranty I really don't know what the issue was. There seems to be no documentation other than 1 isolated complaint, which in the state of NC does not apply to the Lemon Law casual wording so maybe the dealer took it back as a good faith gesture. I have been part of several potential buyback issues (primarily at Nissan) and they usually get ugly. Fortunate for us Infiniti owners these cars very rarely experience repeat issues, although it does happen. Usually the service provided somewhere along the management chain at any Infiniti dealer or a call to CA is all that is really needed to get some answers even in the most extreme cases.