Indiana lemon law and the magnuson moss warranty act – also the federal lemon laws were enacted to protect Indiana car owners from unscrupulous car dealers and auto makers who seek to profit from consumer woes.
The law wages the consumers rights war and ensures that auto makers maintain excellent quality standards for their vehicle models and impeccable service by their authorized dealers. Non conformity of this law has resulted to many auto makers recalling their vehicle models from consumers.
Audi recall, Jaguar recall, Porsche recall, Mercedes recall, Kia recall, Hyundai recall, Suzuki recall, and Mitsubishi recall are all results of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard non-conformity under the indiana lemon law.
The statute as a consumer protection mechanism has several eligibility requirement, this ensures that only genuine claims pass through. To qualify under the indiana lemon law, a car owner must have a vehicle that has been subjected to several unsuccessful repair attempts covered by the auto makers service warranty.
Compensation under the law can take the form of vehicle replacement, total refund or monetary compensation.
If you’re covered under the statute and you have a lemon, then the following steps are worth noting:
Identify your vehicle model authorized dealer and take the vehicle to them for repair. Make sure that you report the problem 18 months prior to or after purchase of the vehicle and after having driven the vehicle for total mileage amounting to 18,000.
Ensure that you allow the vehicle dealer sufficient time to repair the defects. This should be not less than four attempts in total as stipulated under law. The vehicle must have been out of service due to repair for a minimum of 30 days.
Ensure that you retain a copy of the repair order every time you have your vehicle repaired by the dealer, you’ll need this to prove that your motor is indeed a lemon under the indiana lemon law.
Find out if the auto maker of your vehicle has an informal system in place for handling claims filed under the indiana lemon law, suppose the auto maker has an informal arbitration procedure in place that has been certified by the attorney general, then check if the information is available from your vehicles written service warranty.
If the information is present, then it’s prudent to follow the process prior to filing your claims under the Indiana lemon law.