You have put a lot of hard work into making sure that your used car is safe and reliable, that your used car has a clean history, that you got the best price possible for your used car, and that you got the best financing for the deal-- so enjoy it. You deserve it! 
What is an arbitration clause and why shouldn't you sign one? By signing an arbitration clause, you are agreeing with the car dealer that if you have problems with your vehicle, you will not file a lawsuit in Court, but you will instead file your claims with a private arbitration company. This means that instead of having your case decided by a jury in a courtroom, your case will be decided in a conference room by an arbitrator paid for by the business. In fact, many arbitration clauses actually require you to pay the arbitration fees and sometimes the attorney fees of the dealership if you lose. Worst yet, the arbitrator is not required to apply the rules of evidence, or Ohio law, and the arbitrator's decision will likely be enforced in most cases whether or not the arbitrator actually followed the law. In the end, the arbitration process can actually take longer and cost you more money than if you had simply filed your claims in Court. So, even if you win the arbitration and eventually get it enforced in Court, you are likely to have a long, hard fight to get from point A to point B. This means more time with a defective vehicle. 
What is a jury waiver and why shouldn't you sign one? By signing a jury waiver, you are agreeing with the car dealer that if you have problems with your vehicle, you can file a lawsuit but that a judge and no a jury will decide your case. While juries can be unpredictable, they are often your best bet in auto fraud cases involving concealed defects and / or frame damage, because they can relate to you and the situation that you were placed in by the car dealer.
When you make the decision to purchase a vehicle, make sure to read the sales documents. The finance manager at the dealership may try to pressure you into rushing through the documents without reading them, and may even go so far as holding his hand over the documents while you sign them. Don't let him! Make sure to read through all of the sales documents and ask any questions that you have about them.
Use the information you have learned from your online research to determine whether the asking price for the vehicle is reasonable. If the asking price is comparatively reasonable, then make an offer that is roughly 15% less than asking price. If not, then start even lower. If the salesman turns you down, then wait for him to make a counter offer. Do not try and justify your offer. Just wait in silence until the salesman responds. If the salesman plays hardball and the price isn't a good deal, move on to the next car or the next car dealer. 
If you want the best price, do not let the dealer know how much you like the car. Instead of pointing out all the things you like about the car, point out all the things you do not like about the car. Take a test drive and again be sure to point out all noises and obvious problems with the vehicle whether small or large. Make sure you question everything.
Federal law requires every used car on a car dealer's lot to have posted in the window a one page (two sided) "Buyers Guide" that clearly discloses whether the vehicle is being sold "as is" or with a warranty. The car dealer is required to complete both the front and back of the "Buyers Guide", and to give a copy of the completed form to the person buying the car.
Thoroughly check out the vehicle during the light of day and never at night. When examining the outside, look for body panels that don't match up, which can be a sign of body repairs. Also, look at the engine compartment, tires, steering, suspension ride, and look for colored exhaust smoke. In the engine, look for fluid leaks, low fluid levels or unusual colors. Metal particles, tiny lumps, burnt odor or a frothy residue can mean engine damage. Billowing white tailpipe smoke could mean engine repairs. Blue smoke can mean the vehicle is burning oil and you may be in for some expensive repairs. For tires, a worn spot in the middle of the tire often means an overinflated tire. Lots of wear on a tire's outside edge can mean a lot of hard driving and fast cornering. Uneven cupping tire wear can mean suspension or brake problems.
If you plan to trade a vehicle in on the deal, then make sure to get a written appraisal from one or two other dealerships first. You may be able to use that written appraisal later in negotiating a higher trade-in allowance on the deal.
When you go through a car dealership to obtain financing, the car dealer will usually get a cut of the interest you are paying called "dealer reserve". In most cases, the amount of "dealer reserve" that a car dealer can take from you is determined by the dealer reserve schedule of each particular bank. The dealer reserve can vary from an increase of less than 1% to up to 2 or 3 %. The dealer usually has a window of discretion between certain percentage rate increases, and you can bet that in most cases they will choose the highest increase possible.
Then, check online to see if the dealer is running any financing specials. Sometimes the dealer may be able to offer a lower interest rate even where it is making "dealer reserve" simply because of the volume of financing at the dealership and their business relationship with certain financing companies. But, since a higher interest rate can make a huge difference when purchasing a vehicle, it is certainly worth your time to "shop" a loan.
Once you have settled on one or more local dealers that you can trust, go online to view their inventory. The used vehicle inventory for most dealerships can easily be accessed online. And, accessing the inventory online allows you time to look at the vehicles and research them without a high pressured salesman "breathing down your throat".
You should also go online to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("NHTSA") website to see if the vehicle(s) have any recalls or known defects. You will need to enter the year, make, and model of the vehicle(s). Once you have done this, you will have access to all applicable recalls, technical service bulletins, consumer complaints, and defect investigations. Service bulletins are notices that the manufacturer sends out to their dealerships to warn them about problems that have been discovered in particular model vehicles and how to try and fix them. The only way to know if your vehicle was repaired for any recalls or service bulletins is to check with your local dealer’s service department and get a vehicle repair history from them.
Carfax is probably the best known and most trusted of the three. You can get a Carfax vehicle history report online for $39.99. According to Carfax, their vehicle history reports check for a long list of problems, including: prior accidents, mileage rollbacks or rollovers, multiple owners, structural damage, lease, taxi, or police use, salvage, rebuilt salvage, other vehicle brands, flood damage, total loss history, airbag deployment, hail damage, recall information, service and maintenance history, warranty information, and more. Carfax claims to have the most extensive vehicle history database in North America, with over 6 billion records. And, according to Carfax, they receive data from over 34,000 different sources. Vehicle history reports can be viewed on your computer, tablet, or smart phone, and CarFax also offers a 100% money back guarantee. To request a Carfax vehicle history report, click here.
AutoCheck is a slightly less well known, but widely used, competitor. You can get an AutoCheck vehicle histort report online for $29.99. According to AutoCheck, their database is built and maintained by Experian, who has exclusive data sharing relationships with many industry sources who provide Experian with access to exclusive data to available to AutoCheck's competitors. AutoCheck also reports that industry leaders such as NADA guides, CarMax, eBay Motors, Kelly Blue Book, and Edmunds.com have chosen to provide AutoCheck vehicle history reports to their customers. AutoCheck recommends that you obtain and AutoCheck vehicle history report in conjunction with other reports to "fill in the gaps" in other vehicle history reports for issues that other providers do not cover. To request an AutoCheck vehicle history report, click here. 
NMVTIS, or the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, was developed by the federal government. A vehicle history report from NMVTIS will cost you anywhere from $0.25 to $4.95. NMVTIS is operated and managed by the US Department of Justice. According to NMVTIS, their database provides records relating to current and previous state of title data, title issue dates, latest odometer data, theft history (if any), any title brands, salvage history, and total loss history. To request a NMVTIS vehicle history report for just 25 cents, click here. 
Are you in the market for a used car? If so, it is extremely important to research your local car dealers before settling on where to make your purchase. Choosing a dishonest dealer can result in a significantly increased purchase price, or the purchase of a vehicle with undisclosed damage. Since a motor vehicle purchase is such a major purchase, an inflated purchase price or a wrecked car can really hit you in the pocket book if you did not see it coming. Where do you start? 
Another easy way to research a local car dealer is to go online to the Common Pleas Court for the County in which the dealer is located. Not all, but many, have online dockets and allow you to search for cases by party name. While there are always two sides to every story, lawsuits against a car dealership can me a serious red flag. For a link to courts in Ohio, click here. 
Reports indicate that NHTSA has received 6 complaints of spontaneous airbag deployment from 6 owners of 2003-2004 Honda Odyssey minivans, resulting in 3 injuries. Reportedly, the airbags in these vehicles deployed when the vehicles were in operation, but not involved in a collision. NHTSA has also reportedly received an additional 41 consumer complaints alleging that their vehicle's airbag light illuminated. 
But Honda is not the only auto manufacturer dealing with airbag problems recently. In fact, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Chrysler, General Motors, and BMW were all involved in a recall of over 3 million vehicles worldwide earlier this year. In October, 2012, Chrysler recalled more than 920 vehicles worldwide relating to improper airbag deployments in 2002-2003 Jeep Liberty SUVs and 2002-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokees. In January, 2013, Toyota recalled almost 900,000 vehicles relating to improper airbag deployments in 2003-2004 Toyota Corolla/Matrix and Pontiac Vibe vehicles. General Motors has also recalled about 7,000 vehicles and NHTSA is currently investigating whether some additional 400,000 2012 Chevrolet Camaros, Cruzes, and Sonics and Buick Veranos should be included in the airbag recall. 
So, if you take your vehicle into the shop for repairs under warranty for an intermittent problem, it is highly unlikely that the dealership will even attempt a repair under warranty. This is because most car dealers are required by manufacturers to verify or witness the defect occur before they can do any repairs under warranty. And, if they do not verify the defect in a short test drive, then the vehicle will likely be returned to you unrepaired with "no problem found" written on the repair invoice. This can be anywhere from frustrating to frightening for a consumer, depending on the severity of the defect.
From where I sit as a lemon law attorney, the stance is puzzling to me. What many motor vehicle manufacturers don't seem to realize is that if they actually let their dealers try to repair that "hard to find" or "hard to repair" defect, most consumers would be more forgiving, slower to file a lawsuit, and grateful for the help and the effort. Instead, I routinely see many lifelong, brand loyal consumers refuse to ever buy that brand of vehicle ever again. They are upset, angry, and looking for an explanation. All they want is their vehicle to be fixed. Instead, what they hear, the manufacturer telling them that they are imagining the problem or that the problem is simply normal when they know full well that it is not.
Do you have a 2011-2013 Ford F150, F250, or F350 with transmission problems? Does your truck buck, surge, hesitate, or have a delayed shift? We have filed quite a few cases relating to "lemon" 2011-2013 Ford trucks with transmission problems. Ford Motor Company has issued at least one technical service bulletin ("TSB") for transmission problems in its 2012-2013 Ford trucks, but Ford does not seem to have a permanent fix for the problem.
Unfortunately, this same response seems to be a growing trend in the automotive repair industry. For most manufacturers, if you take your vehicle into the shop for repairs under warranty for a defect that is a model wide problem that the manufacturer does not know how to fix, then you will likely be told that the vehicle is "operating as designed" because another vehicle of the same year, make, and model on the dealership's lot exhibits the same known defect. It is a creative way to attempt to avoid Lemon Law liability, but is very unfortunate for consumers, who just want their vehicle fixed.