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Lemon Law, Downey, Nissan

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Case Description

Several months after purchasing a brand new Nissan Altima, the owner started experiencing problems with the Altima's electrical system, radio, door locks and transmission. The Nissan owner's problems included the power door locks rapidly locking and unlocking as well as binding and occasionally locking passengers inside the Nissan. The owner also heard thumping noises under the Altima, and felt a shaking hesitation when he accelerated between 45 to 60 miles an hour followed by the car surging forward. In addition, the Altima's radio had several problems, the windows made noises inside the door when going up and down, and an airbag light went on for no apparent reason. Luckily, the California Lemon Law protected the owner from being stuck with a defective Nissan Altima.

During the first eight visits, the Nissan Altima was never kept at the dealership for more than a few hours, and despite the fact that the defects were getting worse, quite often the owner of the Altima was told that either no fault was found, or that the Nissan dealership could not duplicate his concerns. Frustrated, the owner called Nissan's corporate office and told them that he was tired of going to the dealership all the time, just to get the run around and not have any of the Altima's problems fixed. Nissan promised they would help the owner.

Shorty thereafter, the owner took the Nissan Altima back to the dealership where Nissan found issues and attempted to repair the vehicle's windows, door locks and transmission. Even after keeping the Altima for eight days to replace the transmission, the owner continued experiencing all of the same problems and defects.

The owner called Nissan's corporate office again and told them that because they could not fix the problems with his car, he wanted his money back. Nissan replied, "If we were to give back money to everyone who had a problem, we would go broke." The owner said he was going to get a lawyer, but the Nissan representative told the owner that "there is no need for that," and offered to have someone from their legal team call him back within 2 weeks.

Nissan's legal department never called the owner back as promised and when the owner called Nissan, they apologized and said that they would "send a special tech out to check the car." An appointment was set at the local Nissan Dealership and the owner took the day off work to make the Altima available for the inspection.

The Nissan Tech Specialist arrived an hour late for the appointment at the dealership and only spent 2 minutes test driving with the owner. The owner explained that the Altima should be driven on the highway to duplicate the transmission surge, but the tech said he would inspect it further when they got back to the dealership. A couple of hours later, the owner was informed his Nissan Altima was ready for him to pick up. After questioning why it was ready so quickly, the owner was informed that the Nissan's special tech had left shortly after the owner had. A couple of days later the the owner was told that the tech hadn't found anything wrong with the owner's Nissan Altima.

The owner called the Law Offices of Robert B. Mobasseri, explained his situation and that he felt like he had no choice but to be stuck with a Lemon. Initially, Nissan stood by their claim that the car was inspected by an expert and therefore did not qualify as a lemon, but after the law offices discovered damaging facts relating to the dealership and the inspection, the Los Angeles lemon law firm had the Altima undergo an additional inspection and the manufacturer agreed to repurchase the owner’s Nissan Altima without any admission of liability, or conceding any merit to the owner's claims.

The buyer agreed to the settlement and chose not to pursue the manufacturer or the dealership in court.

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