Qualify for a lemon law

[TBoss1]

Long story short, well kind of short. In mid December 2025, I end up finding a New 24 Chevy express cargo van left over 2500 with a V6, with around 20 miles on on the clock at a dealer about an hour and a half away from where I live in Georgia. Around 1900 miles I discovered a water leak when it rained in the cargo area and at the front driver side window visor. Upon further inspection in the cargo area, I discovered surface rust so I made an appointment at my local Chevy dealer. They confirmed the leak and saw the surface rust they had the van in their body shop for around 18 days. When I looked at the work order, supposedly they said it was GM’s fault. They haven’t welded the roof where it meets the side and that they end up welding it and using a leveling compound to seal it.
Which is hard to believe I didn’t see no evidence when I picked it up, so I just looked the other way a week and a half later we had strong pollen so I went to the car wash and wouldn’t you know the leak was still there so I made an appointment for the following day to bring it in for service and in the morning, I went to start the car and the wipers were not working. Horn was not working and headlights were not working. Brought it in to the dealer asked for a loaner car they told me they don’t have no cars available. OK no problem. They gave me a ride back three days go by I hear nothing. I call on the fourth day being Friday. They told me to come and pick up a loaner car. As of this week coming., the cars is out of service for 25 days and the service writer said he had to speak to the service manager to see what’s going on and what’s the next step. Sorry for the long post just looking for advice.

My question is
1 why did they decide to give me a loaner car?
2 the dealer doesn’t wanna call corporate because of the false work order?
3 the dealer cannot fix it and waiting to hit 30 days for the lemon law?
4 they are short on staff?
5 should I go ahead and file for the lemon law ?

 

[JayhawkRoy]

Read this to see if you qualify for any lemon law protection:

https://consumer.georgia.gov/resolve-your-dispute/georgia-lemon-law

 

[BobsArmory]

Lemon laws vary by state. Don't rely on peoples advice from a different state.

 

[goblin]

...

My question is
1 why did they decide to give me a loaner car?
2 the dealer doesn’t wanna call corporate because of the false work order?
3 the dealer cannot fix it and waiting to hit 30 days for the lemon law?
4 they are short on staff?
5 should I go ahead and file for the lemon law ?

If my story can be anything similar (problem that should take them one day to troubleshoot and half an hour to fix, as it's 99% my fuel pump leaking after they transplanted it to the new warranty engine, and holding the car for 3 months now and ongoing):

- They'll never give you a loaner right away. They'll wait some time to see if there's a magic fix on their side, and if you'll magically find a car and not bother them on your side.

- Unless all this happened in the winter when they are swamped with small repair and juicy easy winter tune-ups - they are just spending 30 minutes per week trying to figure out how to not report to the manufacturer something stupid they did. When they can fire the part canon at the client's expense, they are very fast. When it's out of their pocket, they are more cautious than Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker (actually the jury's out on how cautious he was).

On mine, I spoke with the mechanic (who is a kid obviously out of his depth and totally lost on my car, chasing ground issues for a long crank after letting the car sit and no engine codes, which is obviously the gas draining out after a few minutes, which is usually the high pressure fuel pump) - he actually slipped and shared that he's waiting for ANOTHER similar car to come in for service so he could SWAP the pumps temporarily to see if the issue persists.

And this is on a setup where the manufacturer provides some piping that is one-time use and has to be replaced every time, when a fuel pump is replaced. Creativity at its best.

As far as you're concerned - figure out what you want to do with the vehicle (will your money back allow you to buy a similar one?) and go from there. If they lied on a body repair, chances are you don't want to have them fixing the rest. Good luck

 

[Hall]

My question is

How do you think anyone here can answer those ?

I'll repeat what the others have said too - lemon laws are state-specific. Read the link from JayhawkRoy carefully.

 

[skyactiv]

My dad is a retired attorney. ANYTIME you have work done on a vehcile you need the dealer to document and provide paperwork of what is being done. The work done should be detailed accurately and don't accept word of mouth from the dealer and an invoice not detailing what was done accurately. There are lemon law attorneys and you need to speak with one. Most work on a "fee shifting" or contingency bases and the manufacture pays the attorney fees. You have less of a chance of succeeding filing yourself even though you can do so and many states make it easy vs hiring an attorney specializing in lemon laws. Sometimes you can get more money for damages like if it ruined your family vacation, left you without a work vehicle for your business.. .

I know some might think, hire an attorney for a lemon, another reason new cars are so expensive. The car makers should quit making junk.

 

[Tdbo]

5 should I go ahead and file for the lemon law ?

Yes, the minute that you reach the plateau where you can file, do it.
You need to school yourself on the process in the state of Georgia and be ready for the ride.
It is a process, not an event.
As someone who went through the process in the state of Ohio and represented himself, DOCUMENT,DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT.
If you do so, you should be successful.
In my case, I won and received everything I asked for with the exception of about $60. worth of mileage in regards to when exactly the vehicle qualified under the law.

 

[dnewton3]

BITOG is not the place for legal advice. It is clearly forbidden in our policies.
This thread is locked.

If the OP needs legal advice, he should seek it out through traditional means.