Buying A Used Car - STEP 4

Step 4 - Get a Written Appraisal for your Trade-In

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.

One dealership that does written trade-in offers is Carmax.  Their offers will typically be good for 7 days and are often very reasonable.  To find a Carmax dealer near you, click here.  You can also go to a local dealership for your make of vehicle and see what they are willing to offer you.  But, they may or may not be willing to put it in writing.

What do you need a written appraisal of your trade-in for?  Later, when you have made a decision to purchase a vehicle, and the allowance for your trade-in comes up, it may come in handy.  For instance, if the dealership offers you less for your trade-in than the written offer or offers that you already have, show the written offer or offers to the dealership.  Chances are you can get them to offer more money for your trade-in if you are armed with one or more written appraisals.

Beth Wells

www.BurdgeLaw.com

www.CarSalesFraud.com

Helping Consumers Get Rid of Lemons, 9 Years Running

Buying A Used Car - STEP 3

Step 3 - "Shop" for Financing

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.

What does "dealer reserve" mean to you?  It means that you may be able to obtain financing at a lower interest rate on your own.  Check with your bank, the finance company that holds your current car loan and see what kind of rates they can give you.

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.

Another benefit to obtaining financing on your own is that it can give you the upper hand in negotiating a price.  For instance, if you walk into the dealer and offer to purchase the vehicle with check in hand, the dealer may be willing to reduce the price of a vehicle on their lot to get a sale.

Beth Wells

www.BurdgeLaw.com
www.CarSalesFraud.com

Helping Consumers Get Rid of Lemons, 9 Years Running

Buying A Used Car - STEP 2

STEP 2 - Research Vehicles and Inventory Online

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".

Once you have found one or more vehicles that you are interested in, research online vehicle reliability reports for the different models you are interested in.  Both Consumer Reports and Edmunds publish owner surveys and reviews and are good sources for finding out about troublesome vehicles.  Look online to see what others say about the year, make, and model of the vehicles that you are interested in.

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.

Once you have narrowed down your list of vehicles through research on NHTSA and online consumer reliability reports, you should obtain a vehicle history report online for the used vehicle(s) you are most interested in.  Most dealers will list the VIN of the vehicles in their inventory online.  There are three main sources of vehicle history reports online: Carfax, AutoCheck, and NMVTIS.  You should run all 3. 

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.

A vehicle history report can help alert you before purchasing a problem vehicle. And, when making such a major purchase like a motor vehicle, you should be armed with vehicle history reports from all 3 of the above providers. This way, each report can fill in the gaps that the other may have missed and work together to give you the most accurate view of the vehicle's history available.

Finally, if your state provides title history searches online to the public, then you should take advantage of this free service.  To access the Ohio BMV Online Title Inquiry, click here.

Beth Wells

www.BurdgeLaw.com
www.CarSalesFraud.com

Helping Consumers Get Rid of Lemons, 9 Years Running

Buying A Used Car - STEP 1

STEP 1 - Research Your Car Dealer

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? 

Your first step should be to consult online reviews of local car dealerships before purchasing a car.  One way to do this is to Google the dealership and see if there are any Google+ reviews.  But, where you see negative reviews, be weary of similarly worded positive reviews that crop up around the same time-- there is nothing stopping a car dealership from posting "bogus" positive reviews in response to negative ones.

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.  

You may also want to turn to your friends on Facebook.  Find out if any of them have purchased a vehicle at a particular dealership and what their experience was like.  These Facebook "reviews" can be even more reliable, when you know the person that they are coming from.

Finally, simply type the name of the dealership into Google or Bing and see what else comes up.  However, keep in mind that a large car dealer is more likely to have an online reputation management company "cleaning up" their online reputation than a small car lot.  So, certainly keep that into perspective.

Once you settle on one or two car dealers that you feel comfortable with, you will be ready to select some vehicles.

Beth Wells

www.BurdgeLaw.com

www.CarSalesFraud.com

Helping Consumers Get Rid of Lemons, 9 Years Running

NHTSA Opens Defect Investigation into Honda Odyssey for Defective Airbags

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("NHTSA") has reportedly opened a defect investigation into the airbag system of some 320,000 2003 - 2004 Honda Odyssey minivans.  The question?  Whether the minivans should be recalled for spontaneous deployment of the airbags.

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. 

Airbag problems are not new for Honda.  In fact, recent airbag recalls for Honda involved 426,000 2001-2003 Honda Civics, 43,000 2002-2003 Honda CR-Vs, and 92,000 2002 Honda Odyssey minivans.  For more information regarding these recalls, or to access these recalls online click here, and enter the year, make, and model of vehicle. 

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. 

The root of the problem amongst all of these manufacturers?  All of these auto manufacturers use airbag supplier, Takata Corp.  And, the current defect investigations and recalls reveal how tied together the industry is when it comes to airbags, and how widespread the impact can be to consumers when a single supplier has a component defect.

If you have a vehicle impacted by a recent airbag recall or defect investigation and you are getting the run around at the dealership, or have had problems with your airbag that are still not fixed, then your should consider talking to a consumer law attorney in your state. You may be able to get out of an unsafe vehicle yet!  Click here for a free online 50 state list of consumer law attorneys.

Beth Wells

www.BurdgeLaw.com

Helping Consumers Get Rid of Lemons, 9 Years Running

How Manufacturers Are Trying to Avoid the Lemon Law

Instead of standing behind their warranties, and the vehicles that they build, most motor vehicle manufacturers have taken the easy way out.  What is the easy way out?  The easy way out for most motor vehicle manufacturers is "no problem found" or "operating as designed".  In reality, and in practice, it's just another way of saying we're not going to fix the problem that you're having with your car of truck; we're not going to stand behind your warranty and we are going to refuse to make any repairs.  

In fact, many motor vehicle manufacturers actually have a written agreement with their authorized dealers on how to handle intermittent problems or model wide problems that they do not know how to fix-- don't handle them at all.  And, under these agreements, the manufacturer typically can "cancel" the dealer's franchise agreement if they fail to follow the rules set by the manufacturer in performing warranty repairs.  

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.

Or, 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.  Again, 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.

If you have been given the run around by your dealership and told "no problem found" or "operating as designed", and the problem is not fixed, consider talking to a lemon law attorney in your state.  You may be able to get out of that "lemon" vehicle yet.  Click here for a free online 50 state list of consumer law attorneys.  

Beth Wells

www.BurdgeLaw.com

Helping Consumers Get Rid of Lemons, 9 Years Running

Is your Ford Truck a Lemon? - Transmission Shudder

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.

Where does this put a truck owner? In a bad stop. The reason is that if you have had a technical service bulletin performed on your truck for a transmission shudder or similar problem, but the problem is not fixed, then you will likely be told that the truck is "operating as designed". You may even be shown another vehicle of the same make and model on the lot that has the same transmission problem. The end result is that, if there is no new TSB update for your truck, then you will likely be sent home with an unrepaired vehicle. 

 

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.

If your Ford truck has a transmission problems, you've been to the dealer for repairs, and it is still not fixed, consider talking to a lemon law attorney in your state. You may be able to get out of that "lemon" truck yet. Click here for a free online 50 state list of consumer law attorneys.

Beth Wells

www.BurdgeLaw.com
www.OhioLemonlaw.com
www.KentuckyLemonLaw.com

Helping Consumers Get Rid of Lemons, 9 Years Running