We will see what happens! Thanks for all the help in here.
Ooo keep us informed, Iâve never had a ârepurchaseâ which I assume is a Lemon.
- Do you get your Down Back?
- Do you have to pay miles?
- Do you get monthlies back?
Inquiring minds (mine) want to know.
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Assuming this is a lease, the amount they should give you back is the amount you have spent x (1-(the mileage of first recorded attempt to fix the problem/120000)) to be in line with CA lemon law standards.
Note that they can offer to settle for a different amount, but if you were to pursue a lemon law claim, that would be the amount theyâd be on the hook for.
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Still waiting to find the right resolution
A âlemonâ has a very specific legal definition, in which is must have gone through the court, been declared as such, and then the vehicle is branded as a lemon henceforth. A normal settled buy out is just a manufacturer repurchase and does not result in the vehicle being branded as a lemon (nor are there specific requirements about what they have to pay you, as youâre basically settling out of court).
The lease transfer side of this makes this interesting, as used vehicles donât qualify for lemon protections. It may not count though, as the technical owner of the vehicle never changes during a lease transfer. Iâd be curious to hear a lemon attorneyâs take on that.
In California, during a lemon claim, you would add up the money you had spent; upfront costs, monthly payments, registration fees, etc (canât recall if insurance payments are included off hand). Theyâd then reduce the total expediture by a usage amount. This assumes the useful life of the vehicle is 120k miles and the clock starts at the first attempted repair of the issue. If, for example, your first attempted repair was at 12,000 miles, youâd get 1-(12000/120000) of your expenditures back; 90%. If the first attempted repair was at 1,200 miles, youâd get 99% back. You can see why itâs always in your interest to report issues early with a new vehicle.
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I will have to look at the service records from the previous lessee to find out when it was first in service.
Previous lessee had the vehicle in for service for the same issue before we got the car but never disclosed that to us (in fact they denied the car ever having issues, they are on this forum and will likely see thisâŚHI 
)
I think that their proposal would net a higher sum than using our monthlies and plugging them in to that equation since we have only had the car since August if I am calculating what they are offering correctly.
They may be offering a value thatâs equivalent to whatâs been paid total rather than just your chunk of the ownership period. The fact that this is a lease transfer may make this weird as to what their actual legal exposure is if they didnât want to play ball. I wouldnât push back on their offer without talking to a lemon attorney first. If you need a recommendation for a great CA based lemon attorney, shoot me a PM.
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Iâm not in CA, in NY but literally just went through the same thing. Car was in the shop for 70+ days. You essentially get back all your money including taxes paid to date. If you exceed 12,000 miles there is a mileage deduction. Letâs say you have 17k on the vehicle so the the mileage deduction is (5,000 x (purchase price 60k + 5% of purchase price 3k))/100,000. So in this example your mileage deduction is 3,150.
Happy to go through more detail, but not sure about CA lemon law refunds.
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Corrected by posts above. CA useful life is 120k miles, not 125k miles.
If thatâs the case, you should really be talking with a Lemon Law attorney, not the internet. If a lemon law attorney feels you have a case at your free consult, the manufacturer will pick up the cost of the attorney fees as well. This is the law in all 50 states. This is 100% no risk to you to at least talk to one before you do anything.
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If OP already signed a repo agreement, probably waived rights to any lemon claims.
If they are just offering to buy it back and cut you a check, I wouldnât put up a fight. Take your loyalty and PenFed and lease another one, put that BMW refund check in the bank.
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Havenât signed anything or spoken to any attorney yet.
Iâm waiting to hear back as to what the check they are going to provide will look like.
If it is the number based on the calculations Iâve done so far then we will just take it and get another lease.
Would be great to get to the same payment but may not be possible.
Iâll never understand the rationale of approaching a buy back without using a lemon attorney.
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Just spoke to an attorney and they said that their services are not needed in this instance.
I was sort of shocked.
If I had to speculate, Iâd guess youâre either too far in to the process for them to be able to add enough value or because of the transfer situation, they canât pursue the normal lemon paths
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The attorney must figure they canât make any money⌠They take 30 to 33%.
I lemoned a car once with an attorney in CA and they gave me ALL my money back. There was no deduction for miles used or whatever. They definitely didnât pay for insurance and they didnât pay for any aftermarket upgrades I did to the car.
Good Luck.
On a lemon case, the attorney does not get paid out of your settlement amount. Attorneyâs fees are handled separately with no involvement on your part.
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Not my experience and like I said, I lemoned a car. Unless itâs changed⌠but I doubt it.
Iâve directly or indirectly (family members that I assisted) lemoned about a half dozen cars in the past 5 years in California. Never once has anyone paid a dime to the attorney. Every single time the attorney is paid directly by the manufacturer, which is the standard way things are done in CA (and most states).
Did you use a lemon attorney or go through a general practice attorney?
Mine was probably 20 years ago-ish in CA⌠so, maybe itâs different now. I did use a âlemon attorneyâ and there was no deduction for miles driven or usage and their fee was a percentage of the settlement.
I remember a couple of attorneys didnât want to touch it because they said that Mercedes and BMW were very litigious and itâs not easy to lemon them (I had a Mercedes). I was just happy this guy took the case because it was on a contingency and even though his fee was high I figured it was a free-roll.