Lemon Law Questions

[Ruben Anthony]

I was wondering if anyone can help me out on this since I couldn't find exact information with internet searches.

After two HVBJB replacements in the first two months after I bought a 2023 Mach-E Select back in July, I got the "festival of lights" to pull over and have my vehicle towed. You know the ones. So I decided to call it quits with this vehicle and initiate a lemon law claim with Ford. I already reached out to the BEV agent assigned for this issue back in September and he left me a message saying he will initiate the buy back.

My first question is do I have a legitimate claim with two replacements since that's the minimum number of attempts if the defect affects the safety of the vehicle? Also my service report has the "R.O." date as 18-Aug-2023 and ready on 2-Oct-2023, well over thirty days. When it was in the HVBJB was replaced, and that one failed as well. So a second one was ordered and the second defective HVBJB was replaced. Unfortunately it was not documented as two repairs on the work order. But it was still over 30 days.

My next question is will I get a refund of the extended warranty I purchased through Ford? Looking back I think I should have skipped it since all the major battery components for this vehicle are already covered up to 100,000 miles.

Also, the guy who sold me the car gave me a call last night when he found out I called the dealership asking about a buyback. He apologized profusely and really felt disappointed that my car did not live up to my expectations. He did have a few questions since he just purchased a California Route 1. But the thing that stuck out was he informed me buying back a vehicle is at the dealer's discretion and the dealers in the area (San Francisco, San Jose, Monterey County) don't do buy backs. Or has he called them, "equity exchanges". He did tell me the lemon law cases he has seen simply involve Ford cutting people a check. I just want to make sure I don't get screwed over and end up on the hook for a $4,000 extended warranty I never used.

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[AKgrampy]

I was wondering if anyone can help me out on this since I couldn't find exact information with internet searches.

After two HVBJB replacements in the first two months after I bought a 2023 Mach-E Select back in July, I got the "festival of lights" to pull over and have my vehicle towed. You know the ones. So I decided to call it quits with this vehicle and initiate a lemon law claim with Ford. I already reached out to the BEV agent assigned for this issue back in September and he left me a message saying he will initiate the buy back.

My first question is do I have a legitimate claim with two replacements since that's the minimum number of attempts if the defect affects the safety of the vehicle? Also my service report has the "R.O." date as 18-Aug-2023 and ready on 2-Oct-2023, well over thirty days. When it was in the HVBJB was replaced, and that one failed as well. So a second one was ordered and the second defective HVBJB was replaced. Unfortunately it was not documented as two repairs on the work order. But it was still over 30 days.

My next question is will I get a refund of the extended warranty I purchased through Ford? Looking back I think I should have skipped it since all the major battery components for this vehicle are already covered up to 100,000 miles.

Also, the guy who sold me the car gave me a call last night when he found out I called the dealership asking about a buyback. He apologized profusely and really felt disappointed that my car did not live up to my expectations. He did have a few questions since he just purchased a California Route 1. But the thing that stuck out was he informed me buying back a vehicle is at the dealer's discretion and the dealers in the area (San Francisco, San Jose, Monterey County) don't do buy backs. Or has he called them, "equity exchanges". He did tell me the lemon law cases he has seen simply involve Ford cutting people a check. I just want to make sure I don't get screwed over and end up on the hook for a $4,000 extended warranty I never used.

Here’s the deal on extended warranties - you can cancel them any time you want. So just cancel as soon as you want because it is pro rated and it loses value every month you wait.

 

[RickMachE]

Here’s the deal on extended warranties - you can cancel them any time you want. So just cancel as soon as you want because it is pro rated and it loses value every month you wait.

Prorated on time and mileage. Must be cancelled with the dealership that sold it, and no later than 90 days after sale of car.

 

[onepunch]

Typically Ford does these buyback in-house, to avoid Lemon Law litigation and to keep it off the carfax. When I did a buyback of my F150 Lightning, Ford refunded me for everything listed on the sales contract, including dealer fees and sales tax. So as long as that warranty was purchased from Ford, and is on the sales contract, I would think that they would refund it.

Again, remember that Ford is doing these buybacks internally to AVOID litigation. Trying to screw someone out of a few thousand on a warranty certainly will NOT accomplish that goal.

 

[DevSecOps]

Also, the guy who sold me the car gave me a call last night when he found out I called the dealership asking about a buyback. He apologized profusely and really felt disappointed that my car did not live up to my expectations. He did have a few questions since he just purchased a California Route 1. But the thing that stuck out was he informed me buying back a vehicle is at the dealer's discretion and the dealers in the area (San Francisco, San Jose, Monterey County) don't do buy backs. Or has he called them, "equity exchanges". He did tell me the lemon law cases he has seen simply involve Ford cutting people a check.

If you just had a single HVBJB failure and it took less than 30 days to repair and you haven't had it in for recurring issues then you wouldn't even qualify for the buy back. You did the right thing however and called Ford corporate in the case that you do qualify. The dealerships won't take the car back under a buy back. Remember that dealerships buy the vehicles from Ford, they don't want it back once it's been sold. The dealership isn't going to take that hit. Now if they think they can turn a profit they might work something out, but that wouldn't be a "buy back" and it definitely won't happen with a MachE since they are losing value quicker than any other car out there.

If you go the route of a formal Lemon Law claim all car companies have the option to settle the claim in a number of ways. A lemon law claim would be a formal lawsuit for breach of contract. Just like any civil lawsuit they can give you money and try to make you go away, they can honor a complete buy back or they can fight it.

Read up on the buy back laws because they don't have to reimburse you the entire amount. They can take deductions for a number of things. While some people get lucky and get fully reimbursed not everyone comes out so cherry. There's no way to guarantee that you'll get everything back.

 

[Ghost Ryder]

If you just had a single HVBJB failure and it took less than 30 days to repair and you haven't had it in for recurring issues then you wouldn't even qualify for the buy back. You did the right thing however and called Ford corporate in the case that you do qualify. The dealerships won't take the car back under a buy back. Remember that dealerships buy the vehicles from Ford, they don't want it back once it's been sold. The dealership isn't going to take that hit. Now if they think they can turn a profit they might work something out, but that wouldn't be a "buy back" and it definitely won't happen with a MachE since they are losing value quicker than any other car out there.

If you go the route of a formal Lemon Law claim all car companies have the option to settle the claim in a number of ways. A lemon law claim would be a formal lawsuit for breach of contract. Just like any civil lawsuit they can give you money and try to make you go away, they can honor a complete buy back or they can fight it.

Read up on the buy back laws because they don't have to reimburse you the entire amount. They can take deductions for a number of things. While some people get lucky and get fully reimbursed not everyone comes out so cherry. There's no way to guarantee that you'll get everything back.

Sounds like he had two HVBJB replaced and now has new errors and is on the way to the dealer for Diagnosis of the current problem. If it proves to be the HVBJB again, then that would be strike 3. Easy claim. File with Ford, if they give you a hard time get a Lemon law lawyer. They're everywhere.

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