Our Community is 940,000 Strong. Join Us.


Would this qualify for lemon law?


nanllyn
02-03-2011, 08:34 PM
Does the Ohio lemon law also include if you are not getting the reported mpg? I just bought a 2011 Ford Taurus SEL which reports to get 17city/28 hwy. I'm getting around 10 in the city(the first 10 days or so I drove nothing but city and that is where the 10 mpg was calculated). Now that I have driven on the highway many times it is showing an average of 19.4 when I'm on the highway. This quite a difference than what the estimated mpg is for the car. I have been to the dealer 3 times to speak to the salesman. The sales man has seen the odometer a few times in the last few weeks that shows 19.4 on the odometer. He admits that should be much higher. He used a calculator to manually figure the mpg and it showed 15.4. He did these calculations by what the car's calculation was showing two weeks apart. So I brought the car in for a checkup to find out what is why the mpg is so slow. The dealership maintenance dept. said thier computer showed 24.4 mpg. And that was within the "allowed" mpg average for that car. Even though my car has never shown above 20.9 hwy mileage(that was a trip totally on the hwy for 118 miles). So I don't believe the 24.4 they said the computer showed is accurate. How could it be when my own car's computer shows much less.
Also I told them when I do a hard right turn there is a loud clunking noise. I've heard this sound on other cars before and it sounds very much like when a ball joint is going bad. I don't know for certain it is a ball joint problem but that is what I believe since I've had other cars in previous years that have had this problem. They said they could not reproduce that sound at all when I took the car in the shop.
Also I'm having problems with the My Sync not recognizing commands most of the time. I can not use the phone by voice command at all because it doesn't understand what I'm saying will always call the wrong person. I've even had other people try to speak the commands in case it is my speech but the car says it doesn't recognize the command or always calls the wrong person.
Also the car has the Reverse Parking senser. It has not beeped many times when backing toward a row of trees. It didn't beep a few times backing right up to the garage door. Also there was a pile of snow that was just above the Ford emblem but it didn't beep to let me know I was backing right up to it (luckily I knew it was there so just backed into the snow lightly). The salesman said it was because of the reflection from the snow. But it did beep 1 day out of the 3 days that the snow was just above the Ford emblem. Since the snow has melted and is just at the bottom of the bumper it beeps just about every time. So I don't think it has anything to do with the reflection of snow. Sometimes it beeps and/or has a long no stop beep when nothing is behind me. I got out of the car to check and there was nothing behind me. When I got back in the car and put it in reverse it didn't beep that time. This has happened a few times.
Are any of these things eligible for using the lemon law on if I can prove these problems exists? Even if the Ford dealership says there isn't a problem.
For the mileage problem, they told me to drive it a 1000 miles and keep a log on how much gas I put in the tank, what the computer shows as how many miles to empty, as well as what the car is saying my mpg average is periodically. They said they would then put it back on the computer and if it still showed 24.4 or better then there would be nothing they could do. So I'm doing what they ask but I don't believe the computer is computing the mileage right so it probably won't next time either.

MagicRat
02-03-2011, 09:48 PM
Lemon laws only apply if there are serious problems that the dealer cannot fix after repeated attempts.

Right now, the dealer seems to be working with you to verify the problems, and has not actually attempted to fix anything, so, no the lemon laws would not apply right now.

Of course you may have a lemon law case at a later date.

Some words about mileage.... virtually all cars will get better mileage after a few thousand miles (and in warmer weather!). Right now, the engine is new and pretty tight, so expect the mileage to improve, as the miles increase, the engine loosens up and the weather warms up. Keep track of the fuel used as the dealer suggests and don't assume the worst just yet.

Look here for more info.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/why_differ.shtml

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/factors.shtml

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/factors.shtml

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/factors.shtml

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/factors.shtml

Try backing up to a variety of obstacles to see if the reverse sensor is working properly. I can see snow banks may not work too well, but if it does not work for cars, buildings, child strollers etc, then there is a safety-related problem.

shorod
02-04-2011, 12:10 PM
When backing and the sensor isn't beeping when you think it should be, check the driver information panel to see if it says "Parking Aid Active" or something to that effect. If it doesn't, but similar wording is there when the system seems to be working fine, then you might have an issue with the transmission range sensor (TRS). Have you noticed if your back up lights work reliably? There have been a few reports of bad TRS parts on the SHO forum. My recall is they've all been on 2010 models, none on 2011's yet, but I don't know that anything's changed on them between 2010 and 2011.

-Rod

Add your comment to this topic!