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Virginia Lemon Law

• Hyundai Ranks Highest in Customer Retention among 33 Automotive Brands
  Jan 19, 2012

• Selling Cars on Consignment
  Jan 10, 2012

  Selling Cars on Consignment in Richmond, Virginia.
  

• Is Your Car a Lemon? Top 10 Car Maintenance Mistakes
  Dec 28, 2011

  Is your car a lemon?  Here are 10 maintenance mistakes that people often make.  If your car is not a lemon here are some tips to make it last longer.
  

• 115 Cars Made 2012 Top Saftey Picks' List
  Dec 15, 2011

  Here is a list of the Safest Cars for 2012 as rated by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.  We know you want to be safe. 

• 2011 Automotive Hot List: The Departed...
  Oct 21, 2010

  If there’s one constant in this world, it’s this: We live in a world of constant flux. In the automotive world, however, we’ve all grown accustomed to seeing the same group of manufacturers introduce new models each year. You know the names. But for the 2011 model year—thanks largely to the huge economic downturn that began in late 2008—four well-known American nameplates have gone the way of the Edsel, so to speak.
  
  Of these four, the Hummer brand was the most short-lived. The original Hummer H1 (or Hum-Vee) was a celebrity of the Persian Gulf War. In 2002 came a smaller and (slightly) more manageable version, the Hummer H2. Exactly what made suburbanites decide they needed a four-wheeled facsimile of a machine-gun toting, troop-hauling war machine parked in their driveway is best left to future generations to explain. Perhaps the supersized and fuel-guzzling excess of the Hummer brand will someday look as quaint as towering tailfins from the late-1950s? Or perhaps not.
  
  Pontiac and Mercury always maintained a far more balanced product portfolio during their much longer life-spans. First introduced in 1926 as a model in GM’s Oakland lineup, Pontiac was established as its own make in 1929, to prop up sales at its parent division. Pontiac immediately outsold and eventually far outlived Oakland, which faded away in 1931. Pontiac’s historical highlights include the 1964 Pontiac GTO (the car that defined the muscle-car era) and the Firebird sports coupe.
  
  Mercury was introduced in 1939, not to boost another brand’s sales, but to fill the price gap that had emerged between Ford and its upscale sibling, Lincoln. Cars like the 1949 Mercury Coupe driven by James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause all but guarantees the brand immortality – even if the nameplate itself has finally driven into the sunset. Years of badge engineering eventually dissolved Mercury’s identity, squeezing the brand out of the Ford Motor Company family tree.
  
  Perhaps the biggest surprise – at least in terms of positive automotive karma – is the loss of Saturn. Created by GM to take the fight to imports, Saturn was marketed as “a different kind of car company,” thanks to a lineup of fuel-sipping small cars and no-haggle pricing policy. If only the cars lived up to the feel good dealership experience. A lack of development and new models left Saturn spinning out of orbit. A list ditch effort to market vehicles built by GM’s German-based Opel division as Saturns proved too little too late.

  1. Pontiac    In theory, it was GM’s performance brand. We’ll miss cars like the G8, GTO and Solstice GXP; we wish we could erase the Aztek from our memory (as did Pontiac, no doubt).
  
  

  2. Mercury   Founded in 1939 by Henry Ford’s son, Edsel, Mercury most recently served as an example of poor badge engineering.
  
  

  3. Saturn   Originally known for its plastic-bodied cars and “no-haggle” dealer model; severely held back by a lack of new and unique product.
  
  

  4. Hummer   Thrust into pop culture by a muscle-bound Austrian-born actor/governor, these off-road-biased trucks proved far too bulky and inefficient for the times.

• Ford, Subaru, VW Win Insurance Industry Picks: By Ken Thomas
  Jan 05, 2010

  Provided by: Associated Press. The insurance industry's annual list of the safest new vehicles.
  http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/1168/ford-subaru-vw-win-insurance-industry-picks/

• Final Frontier: Below Dealer Cost: by Jonathan Welsh
  Jun 22, 2009

  provided by
  
  Plunging auto sales are making this one of the worst times ever to sell cars. But if you're one of the relatively rare consumers shopping for a new vehicle, you're already in the driver's seat.

• Virginia Lawyers Weekly, January 26, 2009 - Lemon Law Verdict
  Feb 02, 2009

  Richmond, Va., September 5, 2008 - A Henrico County Circuit Court jury issued a verdict that Chrysler L.L.C., violated Virginia’s Lemon Law.  The fees were paid on December 17, 2008.
  
  An article about the verdict appeared in Virginia Lawyers Weekly on January 26, 2009.  Read our article here.

• Chrysler Violates Lemon Law, Has To Repurchase the Vehicle And Pays Over $70,000 in Legal Fees
  Dec 23, 2008

  Chrysler Violates Lemon Law, Has To Repurchase the Vehicle And Pays Over $70,000 in Legal Fees
  
  

  Richmond, Va., September 5, 2008 - A Henrico County Circuit Court jury issued a verdict that Chrysler L.L.C., violated Virginia’s Lemon Law. The Plaintiff’s 2006 Jeep Commander had a bad odor from the a/c and heating vents causing the plaintiff serious nosebleeds and exacerbation of her allergies. The Plaintiff’s husband and several other people that rode in the car also complained of various ailments, such as light headedness, sinus drainage, and upper respiratory problems. Chrysler initially tried to fix the complaint of a "musty smell" or bad odor coming from the vehicle’s dash vents by cleaning it with chemicals, but then, according to the Plaintiffs, the chemical treatment caused such a bad odor, that it resulted in respiratory problems and the Plaintiff refused to drive it. Chrysler and its expert claimed the problem had been corrected and that there was no abnormal odor in the vehicle at any time during its inspections.

  After two years of litigation, the Henrico jury found that Chrysler LLC had violated the Virginia Lemon Law and that it had to reimburse the Plaintiffs for all lease payments made to date, in the amount of $11,898.09, plus $2000 for their trade in, plus $1,613.91 for rental charges, plus $2,777.50 for the extra mileage they put on a substitute vehicle, plus payoff Chrysler Financial the remaining balance due on the lease, but that Chrysler was entitled to $986.27 for the mileage put on the Jeep Commander up to the date of the first notice of the problem to the Chrysler. Under the Lemon Law Chrysler was responsible for the Plaintiffs’ reasonable legal and expert fees, which, by agreement was to be heard in a separate, bifurcated hearing in front of trial judge on a later date if they were contested.

  Chrysler did not agree that the trial fees of $69,000 were reasonable, and initially offered to pay $45,825.00. The disagreements continued, with fees continuing to increase. Chrysler’s attorney offered his "full authority" of $60,000, Plaintiffs’ countered with a final offer of $65,000, which was rejected. Plaintiffs’ filed their Motion For Expert and Legal Fees, and requested $76,680.00 in legal fees, plus their expert fees of about $4,000.00. Further negotiations continued, with Chrysler eventually agreeing to pay $75,250.00 for the fees and costs within thirty days, in addition to the jury award. These fees were paid on December 17, 2008.

  John Cole Gayle, Jr., of The Consumer Law Group, P.C., in Richmond, Va., noted the fees incurred were avoidable since the Plaintiffs had offered to accept another comparable vehicle, an offer Chrysler not only rejected, but in when he asked if Chrysler wanted to settle, Chrysler’s attorney said, "John, that ship sailed long ago", but I will accept a nonsuit." Mr. Gayle estimates that this two year battle over a $30,000 Jeep cost Chrysler between $125,000.00 to $200,000.

   

• Fine Print Binds Car Buyers
  Mar 01, 2005

  On February 23, 2005, John Cole Gayle, Jr., of The Consumer Law Group, appeared on ABC World New Tonight. ABC news was covering a story about the binding arbitration clause that many consumers are forced to sign when they purchase a vehicle. The story was called “Reading the Fine Print...The legal rights you may be signing away without knowing it.” To view a copy of the story, please go to: