Lemon Laws And You

Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!

Over two years ago, we pre-ordered an EV (a VW ID.4). Our car, sadly, was destroyed in a cargo ship fire. But Volkswagen made things right, and our replacement vehicle finally arrived just over a year after we placed our order.

The ID.4 is a joy to drive, and with our time of use electric plan, it costs very little to recharge. But like most new model cars, it has been finicky, with sluggish software and various bugs that can cause the car to randomly shut off while driving (fortunately hasn’t happened to us).

Finally, last month, Volkswagen contacted us to bring our car in for a comprehensive software and hardware upgrade that was supposed to take about a week and solve all of our problems. More than two weeks later, we’re still facing at least another week of waiting and starting to get annoyed.

And so I began to look into our options. In the US, almost every state has a “Lemon Law”, meant to protect purchasers of defective products. In my state, the law applies to new and used cars, wheelchairs, farm equipment and, strangely, dogs and cats. In the case of new cars, if a defect requires four or more repairs to fix OR the car is out of service for more than 30 days, you can initiate an arbitration process with the state to demand that the dealer buy back your vehicle or replace it with a new one.

I’m still happy with our car, and I’m hopeful that we’ll get everything repaired by next week. But if things take much longer, I’m glad to have this info and won’t hesitate to mention it to the dealership if necessary.

Where can you learn more about lemon laws in your state? KBB has a good state-by-state summary, and almost every state has a website with more information.

And now, Andrew’s pick(s) of the week:

I Cloned Myself With AI. She Fooled My Bank and My Family.

What Happens When Dave Chappelle Buys Up Your Town

And finally, please, please use two-factor authentication for as many of your online accounts as possible. You don’t want this to happen to you: My Twitter’s Been Hacked. But Hasn’t Everyone’s?

I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it on social media! Also, please send me your feedback, requests, and success stories.