Is unrepairable accident damage covered by Illinois' Lemon Law?
March 10, 2022 4:06 PM Subscribe
The radiator of my new car, purchased in August 2021, was apparently punctured by an errant rock. I was told by the service folks at a dealership that radiators are backordered until late May, so the car will sit in their lot until then. Is the inability of the manufacturer to have replacement parts grounds for lemon law action?
IANAL and YANML either, but I'm having trouble understanding whether the law applies to manufacturing defects only. This is surprisingly difficult to figure out via Google, since the results are polluted by lawyers drumming up business.
My aim, if the law does apply, is to apply some pressure on the dealership/manufacturer to hopefully get the ball rolling a bit more quickly. I am otherwise satisfied with the vehicle and would simply like to have it back sooner than. . . months from now.
IANAL and YANML either, but I'm having trouble understanding whether the law applies to manufacturing defects only. This is surprisingly difficult to figure out via Google, since the results are polluted by lawyers drumming up business.
My aim, if the law does apply, is to apply some pressure on the dealership/manufacturer to hopefully get the ball rolling a bit more quickly. I am otherwise satisfied with the vehicle and would simply like to have it back sooner than. . . months from now.
Do any aftermarket parts exist for this vehicle? A dealership might be loath to install an aftermarket radiator, but plenty of other mechanics can and will. I'm assuming that you're paying for the job as a road hazard repair wouldn't be covered under warranty anyway.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 5:04 PM on March 10, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 5:04 PM on March 10, 2022 [9 favorites]
I concur that this isn't covered anyway but if it were, it isn't logically the manufacturer's error.
Depending on the car and whether it's a new model or been around a while you may be able to source a late model wreck's radiator from a salvage yard, if you're willing to pay a little money to have someone other than a dealer put it in. Even very new cars are sometimes totaled after being rear ended, leaving their front end intact.
posted by spitbull at 5:05 PM on March 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
Depending on the car and whether it's a new model or been around a while you may be able to source a late model wreck's radiator from a salvage yard, if you're willing to pay a little money to have someone other than a dealer put it in. Even very new cars are sometimes totaled after being rear ended, leaving their front end intact.
posted by spitbull at 5:05 PM on March 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
Does your car’s purchase contract say anything about it? I would think the mfr would have tried to cover that.
posted by JimN2TAW at 5:27 PM on March 10, 2022
posted by JimN2TAW at 5:27 PM on March 10, 2022
For what it's worth, I sat in a freezing house for 3 weeks because there was a part that our heating unit needed and it was just stuck in the supply chain. I called everyone. The part just was not available for a long, long time.
Certainly different dealerships will have varying levels of customer service. However if it really is just a backlog issue right now (and it really very likely is), your pointing to the legal ramifications and applying additional pressure is just as likely to put you to the back of the line when the parts finally do come in, as there are probably other people waiting too.
I know it's mega frustrating so I'm not trying to be condescending. I was caught in this snarl and it was miserable, and not having access to your new car is probably really miserable and frustrating too. I found that the more I tried to apply pressure the harder it was to get updates on the status of the part. They were frustrated, too.
posted by pazazygeek at 5:36 PM on March 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Certainly different dealerships will have varying levels of customer service. However if it really is just a backlog issue right now (and it really very likely is), your pointing to the legal ramifications and applying additional pressure is just as likely to put you to the back of the line when the parts finally do come in, as there are probably other people waiting too.
I know it's mega frustrating so I'm not trying to be condescending. I was caught in this snarl and it was miserable, and not having access to your new car is probably really miserable and frustrating too. I found that the more I tried to apply pressure the harder it was to get updates on the status of the part. They were frustrated, too.
posted by pazazygeek at 5:36 PM on March 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Obviously I haven’t seen this puncture, but sometimes a radiator can be patched for awhile with epoxy or solder. I assume the dealer won’t do it but it could be worth asking a third party.
posted by michaelh at 7:03 PM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by michaelh at 7:03 PM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
A puncture by a stone is a relatively rare cause of a leak in the radiator of a car driven only on paved roads, and the fact that radiators are backordered for months would have been an indicator in pre-COVID times that something else might be going on ...
So it might be worth googling around to see how many others with this same car are in a similar fix. If there are lots, perhaps a manufacturing defect is the true underlying cause, which it would be very much in the interests of dealer and manufacturer to conceal if they could, by the way — and that would give you much more leverage with the dealer.
posted by jamjam at 8:20 PM on March 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
So it might be worth googling around to see how many others with this same car are in a similar fix. If there are lots, perhaps a manufacturing defect is the true underlying cause, which it would be very much in the interests of dealer and manufacturer to conceal if they could, by the way — and that would give you much more leverage with the dealer.
posted by jamjam at 8:20 PM on March 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
You *may* be able to waive warranty on the part by allowing them to get an aftermarket part or even... *gasp* a junkyard part if you need the vehicle faster. There are places that actually repair radiators by checking and welding them properly. But it usually is cost prohibitive unless the radiator is a huge one like one that belongs on a huge truck.
posted by kschang at 7:12 AM on March 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by kschang at 7:12 AM on March 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yeah, you might investigate other mechanics who could look into sourcing a replacement radiator from a junkyard.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 1:29 PM on March 11, 2022
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 1:29 PM on March 11, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
if the law does apply, is to apply some pressure on the dealership/manufacturer to hopefully get the ball rolling a bit more quickly.
The parts don't exist or aren't able to be accessed. There is no 'pressure' you can apply to make someone have the raw materials to make it faster or (more likely) to get it off a boat faster that is stuck off a port waiting to be unloaded. The supply chain for everything has ground to almost a halt.
Boats going into long beach are typically sitting outside the port waiting to be unloaded for up to 50 days right now. Your radiator may be on one of those already, but EVERY container owner is screaming to get their stuff off. Entire industries are going insane with backlog. Your threat of a lemon law will get you nowhere.
posted by Brockles at 4:43 PM on March 10, 2022 [12 favorites]