California Lemon Law: Know Your Emissions Warranties

With new vehicles, it is common to find that an emissions warranty lasts longer than the manufacturer’s basic warranty. Some emissions warranties last as long as 8 years or 80,000 miles, covering parts such as the catalytic converter and the power train control module. It’s important to check a vehicle’s warranty manual, as it will be found that different parts of the vehicle—such as the emission system—have different warranty periods.

As can be seen in the news every day, tougher emissions standards are constantly on the horizon, and with new standards, new equipment will be built into vehicles. If emissions requirements are made more demanding on the manufacturers and dealers in the state of California and even the nation as a whole, then it is possible that we will see longer warranties for emissions-related repairs or warranties that cover more parts. How quickly we may see this change may depend on the stability or volatility of the price per barrel of oil.
“For consumers, tougher standards could mean that if they are having defects related to the emissions system, that they may have longer coverage and hopefully more extensive coverage of certain parts,” said Norman Taylor, leading California lemon law attorney. “If defects were occurring, the California lemon law might treat the emissions warranty much like the manufacturer’s basic warranty, and the consumer may be entitled to a buyback or replacement vehicle.”

Taylor understands the fine points of lemon law well. He has been a California lemon law specialist since 1987, and he and his firm, Norman Taylor and Associates, have handled over 8,000 cases for consumers with a 98 percent success rate.

“The crux of the matter is, is the vehicle a lemon or not?” Taylor continued. “A lemon is understood to mean a vehicle with a defect that the manufacturer has not successfully repaired after a certain number of attempts, or after the vehicle has been out of service for a particular number of days.”

A “defect” is defined as something the vehicle does or does not do that falls below the standard set forth in the warranty. Some states, such as California, use the term “nonconformity” in their lemon laws. A nonconformity is essentially the same as a defect.

The bottom line: it is important to understand your warranties and their limits. In any case, however, if you think you are driving a lemon, contact a qualified lemon law attorney right away.

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California Lemon Law: Actually Fixing the Problem

Recent news has been carrying the story of Toyota’s largest-ever recall, after widespread complaints of unintended acceleration in various models. According to the manufacturer, the way the floor mat was designed could cause the vehicle to unexpectedly accelerate out of control, and the recall was for the replacement for floor mats as well as accelerator pedals.

A few stories recently hitting the news, however, show that the floor mat design may not be the source of the problem at all. According to a report from The Safety Record, on December 29, 2009, the driver of a 2007 Toyota Avalon experienced a case of sudden and unintended acceleration while driving on the highway—while the floor mat was completely removed. With the problem still occurring, the driver was able to make it to the dealer to show it to them as it was happening. This incident was apparently not the first for the driver, who had been to the dealer before about the problem.

Critics and survivors of unintended acceleration cases have argued that the Toyota problem was not a result of the floor mats or accelerator pedals, but instead insist that the computer controlling the acceleration of the vehicle is at fault.

“It often happens with a defective vehicle that a dealer will try, with a repair order, to make a problem appear less serious than it is,” said leading California lemon law attorney Norman Taylor. “With Toyota, it might be a case of the manufacturer themselves pulling this same gambit.”

Taylor has seen such tricks countless times. He has been a California lemon law specialist since 1987, and he and his firm, Norman Taylor and Associates, have handled over 8,000 cases for consumers with a 98 percent success rate.

Consumers themselves should be wary of such tactics at a dealer level. For example, a consumer brings a vehicle into a dealer with a complaint that the “check engine” light comes on and the car stalls. The service writer suggests it might be something wrong with the Emission Control System, so writes down, “ECS problem” which in fact was not the complaint.

“If the dealer can write down something different on each repair order, the actual problem can be made to look like it isn’t really the defect,” Taylor explained. “Then the manufacturer can argue that it has successfully repaired four different problems, instead of having repeated failed repair attempts for the same problem.”


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