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Eric Freedman

Automotive News | 1:00 am, April 16, 2007

A federal jury decided Bruce Tammi should collect $26,600 in damages because the 2003 Porsche 911 Turbo coupe he leased and then bought is a lemon.

But under Wisconsin's lemon law, the jury didn't provide the right amount of compensation -- not by a long shot, according to U.S. District Judge Charles Clevert Jr., who presided over the trial.

Car owners can't be charged, Petro says Saturday, March 05, 2005 Christopher JensenPlain Dealer Auto Editor

An Ohio Supreme Court decision last year about the state's "lemon law" worried some consumer advocates who feared it would cost Ohioans thousands of dollars. But that won't happen because automakers will not be allowed to charge consumers for the miles they drive lemons, Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro said Friday.

218.0172 Motor vehicle adjustment programs.

(1) Definitions. In this section:

(a) "Adjustment program" means an extended policy program under which a manufacturer undertakes to pay for all or any part of the cost of repairing, or to reimburse purchasers for all or any part of the cost of repairing, any condition that may substantially affect motor vehicle durability, reliability or performance.

Connecticut - Automobile Manufacturers' Warranty Adjuctment Programs, Section 42-227

Secret warranties are a multi-billion consumer abuse. Every auto company makes mistakes in building cars. Whether they are design defects that affect every car or whether they are manufacturing defects which affect only some cars, they must be repaired. The only question is who pays for the manufacturers' mistakes, the manufacturer or the consumer. Although the auto manufacturer often establishes a secret warranty to pay for the repair, all too often it is the consumer who pays for the manufacturer's mistake because the consumer never finds out about the secret warranty.