Submitted 250 days ago...
Oregon Lemon Law on used car purchase
In late February 2008, I located a car on craigslist, portland, or. I asked the nephew of the seller if there were maintenance papers on the vehicle and was called back stating yes. Both my brother and I took the car for separate test drives and it was fine. When I met the seller at this personal residence (arriving about 45 minutes later) he did not produce any maintenance papers. When the seller signed off (as is) it was not a private party signature but a dealership name Ron's Auto.
I took it in for alignment service and was informed that it needed both front and rear brakes along with shocks. Then into the 2nd week of March, I noticed the automatic transmission slipping. Thinking it only needed a transmission flush and adjustment, a well trusted transmission company informed me that the transmission was NO GOOD and needed to be rebuilt (Tues., 3/25/08) $1900. to $2100 in price.
I feel an injustice has been made by the seller. Does this qualify towards the Oregon Lemon Law for legal matters?
Answer 1 / 2
Submitted 247 days ago...
The Lemon Law in nearly all states only covers the purchase of brand new cars. In the lemon Law it states if you bring a "new" car in for the same repair 3 times they must replace the car with another "new" car. In cases involving a used car it's buyer beware! The only time you have any hope of returning the car or recovering any of the expenses you paid out for repairs, is if the seller gives you a written statement saying that he or she will cover any mechanical problems with the car. It is up to you as a car buyer to check the car over for defects or bring someone along that knows cars well. Another good idea is to take a car you plan to purchase to a auto repair shop and have them examine the car. Sure it might cost you a few dollars for them to inspect it! But in the long run it's better than then paying out the hundreds or even thousands of dollars it might cost to have the car fixed once it's purchased. Not only that but if the repair shop does find problems it could give you leverage in buying the car for less money once you tell the owner about the problems the shop found.
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Submitted 215 days ago...
Thank You for the detailed response. I did in fact take someone who knows cars to go through it. It was about 3 weeks later when I started to really notice problems. Per a shop owner, I was told that the party whom sold it to me, knew how to mask the challenges for the short period of time. So a couple of thousand dollars sooner than later .. new tranny, shocks, front mount, brakes, etc., my car will be in perfect running order.
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