Overhaulin'

Car Dealership Fraud, Lemon Law? Major faults on a car I bought 6 months ago?

I bought a BMW from a European Car dealership late June 2008, 36 day dealership warranty, unlimited km's powertrain "engine and gearbox" warranty. 1st day we saw the car the Check engine light, ABS and Traction control lights were all on and a check coolant level message. Dealer told me not to worry the car just came in and will be repaired and Certified all before delivery... naturally none of this was written down, all was said and done verbally. A week later I go to pick the car up. All seemed in order, sales rep said there was some issues they had to address for safety and that all is in order now. So our lovely "coolish" summer passes and winter comes around months later and the car seems to not all be in good order, ABS is not funtioning at all, traction control does not work, was extremely difficult to just keep the car on the road in snowy conditions, until i added 300lbs of sandbags in the trunk. Then I started experiencing some engine performance problems, whining noises in the transmission, grinding noises in the differential, oh and did I mention I had to do repairs on the front suspension as well as the rear susspension that broke 3 months after I bought the car, had to get new springs struts etc... front steering control arms and steering support arms... So all this now suspecting problems with the engine, gearbox and differential, I took the car for a BMW scan and dealership said my check engine light at minimum shhould be on as there were over 10 engine fault codes and the light wasn't on so had to be defective, I took the car home with my new found information, and recalled that I had seen the check engine light on when I bought the car as well as the ABS and ASC light... I took the instrument cluster out and opened it up to expect to see some blown light bulbs, but to my horror discovered that the light had been covered up from the inside with black electrical tape, not enabling me to see any faults with the car that were obviously there... I removed 2 of the 3 peices of tape, re-installed the cluster and the light were on showing that there are issues with the car and that they very likely have never been repaired and merely hidden to get the car through safety and to be able to sell it... I then paid another dealer again to do the same inspection to remove the last peice of tape so that I could have a written report of the cover up... this was after I realised the possible implications of what was going on, in hind sight I should have gotten them to inspect it straight away after finding the the initial problems... and then they would have discovered the horror first hand... So to sum up, 6 months after buying a $8000 car I have a car that has several engine problems, susspension problems, braking problems in inoperative ABS and Traction control. Defects with the exhaust system, possibly also the transmission and differential... is this execptable, how do I resolve this with the dealer that pretty much is just denying any knowledge of the pre-existing conditions and warning light cover up... and staying put on the fact that the car is past it's 36 day dealership warrenty... I feel that this car was a deliberate fraudulant sale and am now stuck with a car that coninsedently broke down in the middle of an intersection today wouldn't go into any gears... so I don't even know what is wrong with it yet, mechanic is just starting initial diagnosis ... again...... does the lemon law or any other law protect me for this? With all these faults I'm looking at $12000 + worth of repairs, I would never have bought the car if those lights were still on the day we signed the papers... Also after signing the dealer said oh by the way, the warranty doesn't cover any gaskets or seals and wrote on the bill of sale sold as seen, without discussing this fact with me... The 2 things that got me into looking at the car to begin with was the fact that the add said that the car is in Excellent condition and that the buyer would be doing so in confidence as the dealer is a UCDA member... but my experience thus far has left me sleepless and emotionally distraught, I don't even know what to think or what to do, I have so many emotions of utter anger, dibelief, sadness, that I am sick to my stomach, since last thursday when I found the lights covered up, and now today the physical 2nd breakdown... HELP PLEASE any one with advise or legal advice? I bought this car in Toronto Ontario Canada

Public Comments

1. An 8000.00 BMW? Sorry but you have no recourse as their is no lemon law for old high mile car.How can anyone predict ahow a car will be as it has to be 10 years old and have close to or more then 100,000 miles.
2. I know how you feel, I'm sorry to tell you this, but unfortunately, you probably don't even have a case. This car does *NOT* qualify as a lemon. Check with a lawyer though.. http://www.carlemon.com/
3. Contact a lawyer. The car is not covered by the lemon law. But you do have a strong case against the dealer for selling a car that is unsafe and not at all road worthy. That alone should be enough to force them to take the car back and refund ALL your money. And they've also had it for more than 36 days and never repaired a thing. Plus they taped the warning light bulbs on the IP. This amounts to fraud as well as creating a situation that could lead to severe consequences and potential bodily harm. You may have grounds for punitive damages as well. Contact a lawyer ASAP. He/she will be more knowledgeable to advise you on what action to take.