California’s lemon law, first enacted in 1982, remains an important safeguard against the dangers of defective cars. The Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (“CARS”) Foundation released a report, the Auto Lemon Index, to raise awareness of the continued importance of this law. (https://www.carsfoundation.org/lemon-index-2022.htm) The report analyzes lemon law court filings and new vehicle registrations from 2018 through 2021 to determine how likely consumers are to end up in court after purchasing a vehicle from different car manufacturers. The report shows that General Motors is the most-sued manufacturer under California’s lemon law, while Toyota is the least-sued. A total of 771,809 GM vehicles were registered between 2018 and 2021, while a total of 9,892 lemon law cases were filed against GM. In other words, GM faces one lemon law case for every 78 cars sold. Toyota, on the other hand, sold 1,527,887 cars but faced only 753 lemon lawsuits—one lemon law case for every 2,029 cars sold. Simply put, a GM customer is 26 times more likely to file a lemon lawsuit than a Toyota customer.
Of course, court filings only tell a part of the story. Going to court tends to be a last resort, which means dangerous and defective cars are more widespread than the court filings might suggest. Some manufacturers act responsibly, offering replacement or repurchase of defective cars quickly, before litigation is required. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Some manufacturers, such as Tesla and Rivian, use arbitration clauses to get cases out of the public court system and into a privatized arbitration system—a system more likely to rule in favor of the company paying for the process. And some consumers simply choose not to file a case at all. Instead they put up with the defective car, pay for repairs out of pocket, or trade in their vehicle for a loss. However, the existence of strong lemon laws incentivizes responsibility from car manufacturers, which benefits anyone who finds themselves with a lemon, even if they don’t take their lemon to court. Defective cars can be deadly, so California’s lemon law is as essential today as it was in 1982.
At Joseph Kaufman & Associates, we are proud to represent consumers in their fights against car companies for justice, and we are proud supporters of CARS and its mission of improving public safety. If you think your car, truck, RV, or motorcycle might be a lemon, reach out to our firm for a free consultation today.
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