Lemon Law- Florida?

[gchappel]

A question for those that have gone through this before.
We purchased a new 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee in Sept. Drove fine as a daily driver for a month.
My wife had an accident in the home- and has not been able to drive since oct.
Car sat for 6 weeks- when I went to start it- it was dead as a doornail. I tried jumping and charging overnight. Nada. Towed to the dealer.
Dealer said it just needed a good charge.

Car was returned. Toe was out. Car veered to the right when driving.
Car sat about 2 weeks- we were travelling. I moved the car so it would be easier for them to pick it up, started fine. Next day-- car was dead again. So dead it would not accept a charge or jump. Towed to the dealer for a 2nd time.

Batteries charged again. They fixed the toe. Car returned. Alignment was still off.
I now started getting sensor error messages. Blind spot alert unavailable. Service required. Active Lane management not available.

I drove the car in, they did give me a loaner for the week. The dealer replaced the batteries and did a full alignment. I looked at the alignment sheet- of the 12 measurements they use, 5 were originally off. They could not find any issues with the sensor systems.

Picked the car up- drives fine. Day 2 the same sensor error messages return. Waiting to schedule another service appointment.

So we have 671miles on this car in 9 months. About 200 miles is back and forth to the dealer. It has been at the service department for 3 weeks in the last 2 months. Service admits they have no idea what is going on.

I am trying to escalate this above the small local dealer- but dealer is not interested in helping.
This is approaching lemon law requirements.
Any thoughts as to how I should proceed??
We have several other Jeeps- and they have been terrific.
Thanks
gary

[mgatepi]

If you feel the car is unsafe to drive and you have probable cause, take it to the dealer and park it. Call a lawyer tell them to Lemon Law it.
I went through this process with a Ford about 15 years ago. Went to the dealership 19 times in 12 months. Towed in 3 times......

[faverymi]

Stellantis.

Thank you for confirming I shouldn't buy Jeep

Sorry for your troubles. I hope everything gets sorted. Good luck

[masraum]

Wow! And in a "new" car. THat's crazy.

Batteries, as in more than one?

It sounds like a nightmare. I would think you need a lawyer to apply pressure if you want it to be lemon-lawed.

Good luck!

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by faverymi

Stellantis.

Thank you for confirming I shouldn't buy Jeep

Sorry for your troubles. I hope everything gets sorted. Good luck

I dealt with fca before and had my warranty voided at 30k miles due to dealership contamination… dealer competency is low across the board, throw in pseudo warranty work that the tech is not being paid for…

The dealer will recommend a trade in and then they’ll just pass the lemon on to the next Joe…

[Chocaholic]

Initial post indicates that toe was out AFTER vehicle was returned from the dealership for no-start. That would indicate an incident while in their possession. Could explain their lack of interest in supporting escalation.

Just a thought...

[gchappel]

Thanks, I did not think of getting a lawyer involved. I am really new to this.
The sales manager is now involved.
Not sure how a trade in would work, but I would accept that if it was appropriate.
Thanks
gary

[CurtEgerer]

Can't help really but thought this was interesting based on quick research. How many lemons produced?

Fiat: 1 in 77,000
Jeep: 1 in 100,000
Cadillac: 1 in 103,000
Porsche: 1 in 106,000
VW: 1 in 202,000
Subaru: 1 in 259,000
Land Rover: 1 in 328,000
Dodge: 1 in 400,000
GMC: 1 in 400,000
Volvo: 1 in 409,000
Chevy: 1 in 840,000

Sort of surprising to me. It seems like the odds of getting a good car are outstanding, even with a lowly Fiat (76,999 good ones vs 1 bad one)! Hope everything works out.

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

Can't help really but thought this was interesting based on quick research. How many lemons produced?

Fiat: 1 in 77,000
Jeep: 1 in 100,000
Cadillac: 1 in 103,000
Porsche: 1 in 106,000
VW: 1 in 202,000
Subaru: 1 in 259,000
Land Rover: 1 in 328,000
Dodge: 1 in 400,000
GMC: 1 in 400,000
Volvo: 1 in 409,000
Chevy: 1 in 840,000

Sort of surprising to me. It seems like the odds of getting a good car are outstanding, even with a lowly Fiat (76,999 good ones vs 1 bad one)! Hope everything works out.

Yeah. Gm is just good at bandaiding the cars through warranty. I shouldn’t have to replace a turbo every year (under warranty)..

Notice the lack of Japanese manufacturers. Mazda, Toyota, etc.

[Alan A]

1-800-LAWSUIT.

Stellantis won't do jack without that.
Dealers are bottom feeders.
Support doesn't.

Lawyer up and be prepared for it to take a long old while.

[A930Rocket]

I had a 99 Dodge ram quad cab. At 35,000 miles, it blew a head gasket and had to be towed to the dealer. Over the next 6 to 8 months, it broke down multiple times, leaving me stranded. It was in the shop 45 days total in that time period. I went the lemon law route, and the arbitrator/association, to rule on the request, said it was not a maintenance issue or a safety issue. Thus, he ruled against me. When the lemon law arbitrator/association, is funded by the dealers, it’s no wonder he ruled against me.

I immediately went to a lawyer, gave him all of my paperwork and receipts. He sent a letter to Dodge, with copies of my receipts and notes, demanding them to take possession of the truck and pay for all attorneys fees*. They agreed and I gave the truck back.

* I forget the name of the act that he cited, but it was something like Magnuson-Moss act, which states something along the lines of the item in question, should function as designed.

[Steve Carlton]

Batteries don't hold a charge very long on modern cars. Seems like when a battery gets low or dead, the electrical system can go whacko sometimes. This might be attributed to you not keeping it on trickle charger, or maybe Jeep will be considered responsible, I dunno. I had a repeat dead battery ultimately traced to the infotainment system head and got a Lemon Law refund of virtually the full amount of my lease payments. A trade in won't compare. I texted my go-to LL attorney and he said "Check google reviews." It shouldn't cost you anything to consult or file a claim.

[WPOZZZ]

Yup, lawyer up. I had to get a Lemon Lawyer for my 2022 WRX. Damned ac system could not cool properly at night. Service manager said they could only allot so much time to each car. That was not an answer I wanted to hear. I tried to be nice ands see if they would buy it back. Sure, only 3k on it in 9 months, how bad could the hit be? $10k! No way, so I lawyered up. The LL attorney took care of everything else.

[gchappel]

Thanks for the info and experiences.
I am still waiting to hear back from the dealer.......
Still waiting for another appointment to the service department.......
I would actually be willing to pay a couple thousand to get a new car- one year newer- as that does have value. But certainly not 10K+++.
I will see what they say.
I hate buying cars.
gary

[jhynesrockmtn]

Sorry you are going through this. Is the Jeep a hybrid?

[Porchdog]

I'm not up on Lemon law in Florida, or anywhere else - but...

The "Auxiliary" batteries in Jeeps are pretty notorious.

As I understand it, the auto start/stop function can pull the main battery voltage to low for the ECM and other electronics. The Auxiliary battery is a small capacity battery wired in to maintain the voltage for these electronics.

My understanding is that the OEM Aux batteries are on the crappy side and the electronics are poorly done, so the failing aux batteries cause all kinds of electrical issues.

If that car has repeatedly sat long enough to drain both batteries, they are likely damaged beyond recovery. (Thus they were replaced by the dealer.) Aggressive charging and jump starting could easily have damaged electronics, especially the notorious "Power distribution center".

I don't do Jeeps, but my coworkers and friends have educated me on these issues. I have jump started several and helped change one power distribution center.

Sadly, while the batteries and electronics are notorious, it sounds to me like these issues are on you for letting the car batteries go dead. With keyless entry and keyless start and all the other "features" in these modern cars, they just drain the battery when they are sitting for weeks.

Regarding alignment - again, continuous alignment issues seem to be a feature with Jeeps. To happen in a few hundred miles - if it didn't hit a curb, loose parts from the factory would be a good guess. but nothing to do with the electrical issues.

[Arizona_928]

That reminds me of my firestick remote. Would have to change out the batteries every month or so. Tacitly removed some extra hardware and now the batteries last 3x as long.

[Steve Carlton]

That explains the loss of sound at your house.

[gchappel]

I really never thought letting a car sit for a month could damage it??
I let cars sit that long in the airport all the time as we travel.
But hopefully they can get it straightened out.
Thanks again
gary

[Porchdog]

Assuming that Jeep has auto start/stop - you drain the starting battery at every light. Even worse with the radio, lights, A/C, navigation...

If you are making short local drives with lots of stops, you can end up with less battery charge than you had when you started each trip.

The other thing I have seen in newer cars with keyless entry and key less start - they are constantly scanning for the key fob. That takes a non-trivial amount of power - especially over a period of weeks. Many of them (like my wifes Buick) start a pump when the key gets close, or even turn on interior lights and fire up the dash and connect bluetooth, in anticipation you will get in.

Two or three weeks without being started shouldn't be an issue even with all the above - but with certain modern cars, it seems to be. Combine that with a starting battery (or both batteries) that rarely or never got to full charge after leaving the dealers lot - those batteries can easily get discharged.