Unfortunate Lemon Situation Advice

[harrisrwe]

This seemed like the most appropriate place to post so I'll give it a shot. So I got my 2013 Sonic RS coming up on 2 years ago, and It's had such a slew of problems that I'm starting to wonder if I should look into the Lemon Law. Since I've gotten the car, it's been in the shop for:

- 4 separate Parking brake visits that were never resolved (sticking on)
- The current parking brake recall
- Coolant leaks
- Shift knob falling off multiple times
- Bad tire pressure sensors (batteries went bad)
- Busted transmission (just went at 29,000 miles)

I love my car, don't get me wrong, I'm just worried since I've had so many problems already, what am I going to have to deal with in a short time down the road when my warranty is gone. If anyone has ever dealt with a Lemon or knows anything, your advice would help. Opinions are welcome too. Michigan resident if that helps.

 

[redhot1.4]

That's no good I just hit 25,000 on my 14 HB 1.4 auto. Zero trips to the dealer besides normal maintenance
I actually had mine 1yr this month. I hope it all works out for you.

 

[Sneakerfix]

This seemed like the most appropriate place to post so I'll give it a shot. So I got my 2013 Sonic RS coming up on 2 years ago, and It's had such a slew of problems that I'm starting to wonder if I should look into the Lemon Law. Since I've gotten the car, it's been in the shop for:

- 4 separate Parking brake visits that were never resolved (sticking on)
- The current parking brake recall
- Coolant leaks
- Shift knob falling off multiple times
- Bad tire pressure sensors (batteries went bad)
- Busted transmission (just went at 29,000 miles)

I love my car, don't get me wrong, I'm just worried since I've had so many problems already, what am I going to have to deal with in a short time down the road when my warranty is gone. If anyone has ever dealt with a Lemon or knows anything, your advice would help. Opinions are welcome too. Michigan resident if that helps.

I wouldn't worry about it you still have coverage for 100k and 150k on the water pump. Do you always go to the same dealer?

 

[jgrote]

It sounds to me that you have a bigger problem with your dealer than with your car. I'll give you the transmission. It stinks, and they know about it, and a new tranny should take care of it. Beyond that, your problems sound small, but with one major flaw; your dealer can't seem to get things fixed. I've seen more cars lemon law'ed because of bad service departments than I have just bad cars. Find a better service department and see if you can get it whipped into shape. If that doesn't work, then it's lawyer time. (You'll need one to get it lemon'ed .)

 

[harrisrwe]

Do you always go to the same dealer?

I do always take it to the same people. I don't know, I've paid enough into my car already that I could trade it in and most likely come out even, so I may start looking into that, but if not, then I will definitely start taking it to another dealer for service.

 

[ghaberek]

Not sure where you're at, but here in Michigan we have Steve Lehto. He is *the* Lemon Law attorney. You may want to contact him for advice, even if he just points you in the right direction. http://lehtoslaw.com/

 

[festboi]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck with the Sonic. It's aggravating when a new car has these issues, grrrr!!!

I got into a lemon lawsuit with GM back in 2007 over my Aveo when it was constantly going to the shop. I'm in California, and keep in mind that lemon laws can vary by state. So what may pertain to here, may not work in Michigan.

The main thing to keep in mind is that to be a lemon, the car has to have the same defect at least four times and have been serviced by a Chevy dealer with no fix to the problem. The issue has to be something related to perfomance or safety (your parking brake issues could maybe qualify). It cannot be sporadic issues that have happened once or twice.

The car does have to be under 36k miles or less than three years old, and you have to be the original owner.

I used a lemon lawyer through the whole process. I had to provide all of the receipts from the attempted repairs and that was about it. The lawyer took care of the rest.

I did win, and I was reimbursed all of the money I had put into a down payment, plus all of the payments made up to that point, minus a mileage fee (I forgot the equation they used for it, but it may have been something like 3 cents per mile), and then the lawyer fee of $1000. By that time, I still had a few thousand as a down payment on something else

Hope that helps and good luck. Feel free to ask any questions that you have too

 

[mattd390]

I have a 2012 Sonic LTZ and I recently had to have the transmission replaced, too. I had about 29K miles on it. I have had multiple trips to the dealership for the water pump recall and the leaks that followed... I was thinking about looking into the lemon laws for my car too. Please post any updates that you can!

 

[jalovec]

I hear ya there man. I picked my 2013 up in January 2014. I didn't notice that my horn and driver's side bright headlight didn't work. I worked on the road at the time and didn't have time to take it in. 3-4 months later my a/c stopped working. I took it to the dealer, and apparently mice had been in it while it was setting on the dealers lot. I went in and all was fixed except for the light. In October, the shifter on my transmission stuck and I was getting on the interstate. It would only go into 5th gear. Sent it to dealer again where they replace the clutch and transmission. I also had the look at the light. They ordered parts for the headlight issue and were supposed to call me back when they arrived. I never heard back from them, and moved to another city shortly after and forgot about it until recently. Yesterday, I stopped at a convenience store on my way home from work and aa I left the parking lot, tranny went out again. Luckily. I was nearly home and was able to ride in 5th far enough to coast into drive. I love my little car, but I'm starting to have second thoughts about keeping it much longer.

 

[jalovec]

I hear ya there man. I picked my 2013 up in January 2014. I didn't notice that my horn and driver's side bright headlight didn't work. I worked on the road at the time and didn't have time to take it in. 3-4 months later my a/c stopped working. I took it to the dealer, and apparently mice had been in it while it was setting on the dealers lot. I went in and all was fixed except for the light. In October, the shifter on my transmission stuck and I was getting on the interstate. It would only go into 5th gear. Sent it to dealer again where they replace the clutch and transmission. I also had the look at the light. They ordered parts for the headlight issue and were supposed to call me back when they arrived. I never heard back from them, and moved to another city shortly after and forgot about it until recently. Yesterday, I stopped at a convenience store on my way home from work and aa I left the parking lot, tranny went out again. Luckily. I was nearly home and was able to ride in 5th far enough to coast into drive. I love my little car, but I'm starting to have second thoughts about keeping it much longer. All of this in 48k miles.

 

[harrisrwe]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Well, as a little bit of an update, they replaced my tranny with an SRTA one (rebuild) and it seems okay, my A/C problems turned out to be a broken coolant thermometer in the engine. Got my car back Thursday, and it's already back in the shop. NOW, after my car has been sitting for about an hour, when I disengage the parking brake, the car makes a loud, horrendous BOOM as the brake is forced to be disengaged and then the car moves freely. Needless to say, my lemon lawyer (Ron Weiss FYI) now has all my information and I'm just waiting to hear back if I qualify. As one person stated, the lawyer took $1000 as payment, well luckily, my guy gets paid on contingency, so if he wins, GM pays him, if he doesn't, he doesn't get paid. Anyways, I've got my eye on an Orange 2015 Hyundai Veloster Turbo lol @festboi, how long did the entire process take?