PA Lemon Law Blog

Doug had recently purchased his first new vehicle in quite a while.  A burnt orange 2008 Dodge Caliber, pretty loaded up, at a fantastic price.  Imagine Doug’s surprise when he found body damage on the vehicle when performing his first oil change.  After a little more investigation, Doug discovered that his vehicle had been significantly damaged prior to sale.  It turns out that someone decided to place the vehicle on cement blocks to steal the rims.  The dealer placed new rims on the vehicle and made minor repairs to the underbody, but did a shabby job.  The dealer transferred the vehicle to another dealer, which in turn sold the vehicle to Doug.

After a few phone calls to the selling dealership brought no results, Doug contacted our office.  We immediately undertook representation of Doug and initiated a claim under the New Motor Vehicle Damage Disclosure Act.  This Pennsylvania law sets forth that a dealer must notify a purchaser of any vehicle of any damage that occurred to the vehicle prior to sale if the damage surpasses $500 or 3% of the purchase price.  This law provides tremendous relief to the purchaser, in that they are eligible for a full refund of the purchase price or a new replacement vehicle.  The Damage Disclosure Act further provides that a violation coonstitutes a violation of the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.  That law is an extremely powerful law that allows for recovery of your reasonable attorney fees.

Within a matter of days, the selling dealership’s attorney contacted our office with a settlement offer.  The dealership had located a replacement vehicle for Doug and agreed to pay his attorney fees in full.