Lemon Law Experience

[disneychrista]

Anyone have any experience with a car that falls under the lemon law ? How difficult was it to get the dealer to buy your faulty car back? Was it something you needed to sue them to get done?

My 2024 Trailblazer is in the shop for a second time for electrical issues. They have not been able to figure out that issue either time. If I had been more diligent about it probably would have gone in at least 2-3 more times. I have had this car since November 2024 and had the first major issue in May of 2025 when the entire electrical system shut down, no dash lights, or gauges, couldn't get the car to shut down, the windows could not go up/down, the doors couldn't lock. It has happened a couple other times but very briefly. Then I got a power steering error message. Then more recently the cruise control & adaptive cruise control have gone off as I was driving down the freeway at 65mph. Finally, the stabletrek error message came on last Friday. They can see the errors but can't replicate them nor figure out how to fix them. I am about done with it. I am ready for a new car and be done with this.

 

[tvguy]

Well, the dealer doesn't buy the car back, the manufacturer does.
My son had a Hyundai Kona EV that the dealer could not fix and had it over 30 days. My son called Hyundai direct and THEY were quite helpful. They told my son that a car being in the shop 30 days is an automatic buyback under California's Lemon Law. Hyundai was great, the dealer, not so great. Under the law the manufacturer brings in an independent third party to evaluate the car and ensure that it should be bought back. Hyundai said the process should be complete in a couple of weeks. Problem was, the DEALER refused to allow Hyundai's independent representative on the lot to look at the car. So the process took 3 months. My son got his money, and within a few months after that, Hyundai pulled the franchise from that dealer. It is reopened under a new owner.

 

[barkley]

is just one particular dealership having the issue? have you considered taking it to another (warranty should cover any authorized dealership)? I've found that the quality of service can vary greatly dealership to dealership.

I had an issue years ago with a Honda that I repeatedly took into the dealership complaining of an issue. they claimed they could never replicate my complaint. I contacted the manufacturer and told them the how many times/dealership response each time and they got involved and had the entire vehicle gone over during which they discovered that a part had been misinstalled when they vehicle was manufactured. from what I recall they questioned the dealership on why they hadn't caught it and were given some excuse they didn't care for so on top of it being repaired they extended their warranty for me.

 

[LuvOrlando]

We had a Sebring that oozed black tar from the doors. Dealer completely ignored the problem and would just wipe the goo away when we brought it in every once in a while over the summer. Later on we had a Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo that would just shut itself off from time to time, I was afraid for my life sometimes but dealer also completely ignored that issue and it only came to light with a recall when the vehicle was over 10 years old so most were off the road and the problem became less expensive. In my experience the whole Lemon Law thing is a law without teeth, I have never known a single person who had their car taken care of for being defective. it makes people think they are protected but I've never seen it be enforced. This is one of the reasons I lease before I buy, it it is a lemon it's one or 2 years under warranty then gone.

What happened to me with the 05 Jeep sounds exactly like what is happening to you, looking back I think they knew exactly what was happening but strung me along - no regard at all for customer safety.

 

[disneychrista]

is just one particular dealership having the issue? have you considered taking it to another (warranty should cover any authorized dealership)? I've found that the quality of service can vary greatly dealership to dealership.

So far it is just the local dealer. I have thought about taking it to another dealer. I would do it next week, since I have a couple days off, expect I don't know what to do for a day while they look at it.

 

[kdonnel]

Lemon laws vary from state to state, assuming you are located in the US.

I would google your state and lemon law to get an idea of what qualifies.

As for experience…..

My wife and I bought a 2011 KIA Sorrento. Almost immediately it had issues. It was back and forth to the dealer repeatedly.

After dropping it off one more time I got a phone call from KIA. They had opened a buy back file under GA Lemon Laws. They were prepared to buy it back if it was not fixed this time.

They had also had engineers from Korea who happened to be in GA at the assembly plant taken to the dealership where my car was being diagnosed. It was the first model year produced at the GA factory and they were very interested in finding the issue.

In the end they fixed the issue, the buyback was cancelled, and the car has been extremely reliable since.

Good luck.

 

[disneychrista]

Lemon laws vary from state to state, assuming you are located in the US.

I have looked up the law for California, so I know the legal requirement, which is after a reasonable number of attempts the problem has not been repaired. They define reasonable as 4 or more attempts in the first 18 months. I wish I had been more proactive about the issues. But since the first time they said they can't really do anything unless the car is actively showing the warnings or having the issue. Problem is that the issues are intermittent and not constant. The service warning will come on and then the next time I am in the car it will be gone. The dash gauges will all go off and then a few minutes later will come back on.

I am definitely, going to take it to a different dealer to have them look at it, sooner rather than later.

 

[disneychrista]

Well, the dealer doesn't buy the car back, the manufacturer does.
My son had a Hyundai Kona EV that the dealer could not fix and had it over 30 days. My son called Hyundai direct and THEY were quite helpful. They told my son that a car being in the shop 30 days is an automatic buyback under California's Lemon Law. Hyundai was great, the dealer, not so great. Under the law the manufacturer brings in an independent third party to evaluate the car and ensure that it should be bought back. Hyundai said the process should be complete in a couple of weeks. Problem was, the DEALER refused to allow Hyundai's independent representative on the lot to look at the car. So the process took 3 months. My son got his money, and within a few months after that, Hyundai pulled the franchise from that dealer. It is reopened under a new owner.

Did your son get the full purchase price refunded by Hyundai?

 

[tvguy]

Did your son get the full purchase price refunded by Hyundai?

Yes. And Hyundai paid for a rental car for the three months it took to resolve the issue.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Working on the financial end of the cars.... I have seen that people CAN successfully do this. We received checks from an auto manufacturer paying off the loan on cars that were deemed lemons.

I don't know how much effort the customer had to put into getting the manufacturer to do this, or the details that led up to it. But I do know it CAN be done successfully.

 

[kdonnel]

I have looked up the law for California, so I know the legal requirement, which is after a reasonable number of attempts the problem has not been repaired. They define reasonable as 4 or more attempts in the first 18 months. I wish I had been more proactive about the issues. But since the first time they said they can't really do anything unless the car is actively showing the warnings or having the issue. Problem is that the issues are intermittent and not constant. The service warning will come on and then the next time I am in the car it will be gone. The dash gauges will all go off and then a few minutes later will come back on.

I am definitely, going to take it to a different dealer to have them look at it, sooner rather than later.

It is definitely a pain to give up the car for several days when you know they are not likely to actually fix the issue but you have to do it in order to meet the lemon law requirements.

Sounds like it would be worthwhile to reach out to a lemon law attorney.

Your car is new enough that it is in near constant communication with Chevy. There are likely many DTC generated when the event happens. Those are not only stored on the car but also sent up to Chevy.

As painful as it might be, you will likely have to bring the car in each time it happens and demand they look at any Dealer Maintenance Notification (DMN) related to your car. If your On Star subscription is still valid you can also push the button and ask them what codes were just reported for your car.

Have you contacted Chevy to ask for help getting the issue diagnosed?

Contact the Chevrolet Customer Assistance Center at 1-800-222-1020 to escalate your issue. If the dealer fails to fix your car, request a District Specialist to review your case, and consider filing a formal complaint with the FTC or your state’s attorney general.

edited to add:
When I bought my last car I started the process on ford.com, placing an order and deposit, $250. At purchase time I asked about the deposit being reflected in the final numbers and was told I had to deal with Ford to get that refunded. I pushed back but they told me they new better. Once home with the new car I found that the credit card charge was direct to the dealer and not to a generic Ford. The dealership apologized and said they would put a check in the mail. Weeks later and multiple calls to the dealership only resulted in promises that the check was in the mail.

I contacted by state's attorney general office via mail and within a week received a phone call from the owner of the dealership. He was angry I had gone to the GA state attorney general. He said a check was waiting for me at the dealership. I told him I didn't want to waste my time driving there and expected them to send the check to me with tracking. I explained that there did not appear to be anyone honest who worked at the dealership. I know that just made him even angrier but later that afternoon I got an email with tracking info and a check showed up the next day.

Elevating the issue through Chevy or your state's attorney general might be helpful.

That afternoon I got an email with a FedEx tracking number

 

[John VN]

DW purchased a New on Lot 1999 Ford Taurus after Test Ride. I rarely drove it since it was her car for work and what-ever but we had to go somewhere and as her chauffer it was time to drive. I felt the car drifting right, called Dealer for an alignment check and results were -- no issue. Car back, she drove, no problem until we took a long drive and it still did not feel right to me. Back and forth a number of times with the Dealer finally saying they did an alignment. STILL NOT RIGHT to me I reported it as a Lemon and Dealer said bring in again. In it went, Big Shot Ford Rep. was there so we went for a test ride.

I drove, he in passenger seat we take off and he remarks that the crown in the road will always cause a drift so blah-blah-blah.... Figuring he WAS going to TEACH ME about car handling, while going to Engineering College I worked on cars at a Service Station, I picked a road that had NO CROWN, got dead center, let go of the wheel until he started to lean over to grab the wheel SOOOO -- Lemon Law took over and DW placed an order for a NEW 2000 Taurus only paying the upcharge.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I went through this in 2021 with a Volkswagen Atlas. I was successful, but it is crucial that your issues at the very least meet your state's lemon law conditions. Every manufacturer is also different and even the timing of your attempts can make a difference. For example, DH had a recurring issue with his Ram Truck. They would only permit the dealership that handled the initial service claim to do the fix since they didn't want us involving multiple dealer service departments. I believe it was their fourth try when they finally figured it out and fixed it, but they were really hard to work with and communication was awful.

As for my VW, I bought it in March 2020, right before everything shut down. By sometime in May, the air conditioning stopped cooling. I brought it in for service (took 2 days), they could not find a leak and just assumed it came only partially filled from manufacturing. They topped everything off and by mid-June the a/c was out again. This time, they had it for over 3 weeks and gave me a loaner about 3-4 days into this round. By early August, it was out again. I was going to try a different dealership service dept but it took them weeks to get me a loaner and when I showed up, they literally gave my loaner away right in front of me. So, I went back to the original dealer. They gave me a loaner and had it back to me in about 5 days. Whatever they did helped for a while, but by February, the a/c went out again. I took it back in to the original dealer, got a loaner, and after having my Atlas for a couple of days they told me they had no idea what was wrong with it and were waiting on a tech from corporate to help. This is when I reached out to VW corporate to start the buy back attempt. Since they had given me what they deemed a suitable loaner multiple times, it became crucial to document the number of times they'd been unable to fix it, the current repair state (or lack thereof), and the overall number of days I had been without my vehicle...as well as the dangers of driving my vehicle without a fix. I was assigned a case manager a few days later who assessed my situation. A little over a week after getting the ball rolling, she confirmed that she'd be escalating my case to corporate to begin the next review phase for buyback. It took a few more days to hear from them and I had a ton of paperwork and documentation I needed to provide, but within the course of the week we had an agreement, they overnighted me some documents that needed a wet signature as well as notarization, and then it was just waiting on the settlement checks and financing payoff. I also got them to agree to keep me in a loaner until I had my settlement check in hand...which happened on April 21st of 2021. All in all, while I had been provided with a loaner much of the time, I was without my actual vehicle for a total of 117 days.

A side note...there was a massive safety recall issue involving my vehicle that started up about 6 months after I finished this process. It was an unrelated issue, but it was a major safety concern. VW had so many buy back requests that they weren't honoring many of them and most people were stuck with their unsafe vehicles for quite some time since there was no fix for many many months. Had I started my attempt while this was going on, it's unlikely I would have been successful and would have had to go the official lemon law route and involve an attorney. Some states really stand behind their lemon laws and will provide free or super cheap legal assistance to help guide you through the process.

 

[disneychrista]

I think I am going to try to get an appointment with the out of town dealer next week. It is definitely going to be a pain but I’ll figure it out.

Thing I don’t know if it is true or not is local dealer is blaming GM saying they can’t/won’t give them any assistance with it. A quick google search shows that others have had similar issues.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I remember you having issues previously on this car though I can't remember what the resolve ended up being. Since you're still having issues have you looked up to see if your car is part of a recall? There is a recall for 2024 Trailblazers but to know if your specific vehicle is part of it you can go here and input your VIN or your license plate number https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls

The one recall I saw had the following information: "General Motors has decided to conduct a Voluntary Emission Recall involving certain 2024 model year Chevrolet Trax, Trailblazer and Buick Encore GX and Envista vehicles with a 1.2L engine. The engine control module may not properly control engine ignition timing following certain Auto Engine Stop/Start events. If this were to occur, the Malfunction Indicator Lamp (Check Engine Light) would illuminate, andthe engine may run rough or knock. In some cases, if the vehicle is driven with engine knock, engine damage could occur. Proper engine ignition timing control will resume following a subsequent Auto Engine Stop/Start event. Correction Dealers are to reprogram the Engine Control Module" That was back in August 2024 so before your car was purchased but I could see expansions of affected vehicles being added.

When you go to the NHTSA's website you can also see complaints people have had about the model of your car

 

[tvguy]

I think I am going to try to get an appointment with the out of town dealer next week. It is definitely going to be a pain but I’ll figure it out.

Thing I don’t know if it is true or not is local dealer is blaming GM saying they can’t/won’t give them any assistance with it. A quick google search shows that others have had similar issues.

I am assuming this is an ICE Trailblazer? I don't think they made an EV version in 2024. My son loves EVs but the lack of techs and frequent recalls has had both his current EVs in the shop for several days at a time, even with an appointment. His ID4 was in the shop for a week for a door handle recall. It was supposed to be a 4 hour repair. But the dealership only has ONE EV tech who does that repair and he had them lined up. And software updates, the update may take just a few minutes, but VW required a 14 hour system test cycle after the update. His Chevy Blazer EV, there is only ONE EV tech at his dealer and that tech is shared with another Chevy dealer so he is only there two days a week one week, then three the next. And you would think this would not be an issue in a city as large as Los Angeles., but I guess EVs are so popular there, it makes the Tech shortage even worse.

 

[disneychrista]

I remember you having issues previously on this car though I can't remember what the resolve ended up being. Since you're still having issues have you looked up to see if your car is part of a recall? There is a recall for 2024 Trailblazers but to know if your specific vehicle is part of it you can go here and input your VIN or your license plate number https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls

Yes, I have had issues with this car since I first posted about it. NOTHING has been done to resolve the issues because they don't know what is causing them. The service rep say they have looked at service bulletins but haven't found anything and that GM won't give them any assistance unless the warning or error is active. I do find that difficult to believe.

There are no active recalls for my vehicle. I believe the one recall was fixed before I purchased .

 

[disneychrista]

I am assuming this is an ICE Trailblazer? I don't think they made an EV version in 2024. My son loves EVs but the lack of techs and frequent recalls has had both his current EVs in the shop for several days at a time, even with an appointment. His ID4 was in the shop for a week for a door handle recall. It was supposed to be a 4 hour repair. But the dealership only has ONE EV tech who does that repair and he had them lined up. And software updates, the update may take just a few minutes, but VW required a 14 hour system test cycle after the update. His Chevy Blazer EV, there is only ONE EV tech at his dealer and that tech is shared with another Chevy dealer so he is only there two days a week one week, then three the next. And you would think this would not be an issue in a city as large as Los Angeles., but I guess EVs are so popular there, it makes the Tech shortage even worse.

Correct this is not an EV or hybrid. My next vehicle purchase will probably be a hybrid.

 

[tvguy]

Correct this is not an EV or hybrid. My next vehicle purchase will probably be a hybrid.

We have been pleased with our 2020 Camry Hybrid so far, only 34,000 miles on it. Car we traded in we have 20 years and 150,000 miles, and we are retired now so, barring an accident, our decline in miles driven and my age, not sure I will ever buy another car. However, I was taken aback by an owners manual of over 300 pages.

 

[disneychrista]

We have been pleased with our 2020 Camry Hybrid so far, only 34,000 miles on it. Car we traded in we have 20 years and 150,000 miles, and we are retired now so, barring an accident, our decline in miles driven and my age, not sure I will ever buy another car. However, I was taken aback by an owners manual of over 300 pages.

I had the Corolla Hybrid & the Corolla Cross Hybrid on my list when I got the Trailblazer. I liked the way the Trailblazer looked more and this one had ALL the bells & whistles. I will probably never have anything other than a Toyota in the future. I have my Echo for nearly 15 years and it was only in the last year that it had a minor issue.