dstew74,
I am a little further in the Georgia Lemon Law process (I also live in Marietta) than you are and I would like to offer some helpful tips that I would have liked to have known when I started this absolute nightmare of a process. This is what has worked for us. Note that these are in no particular order.
1) Just know that they will most likely deny your repurchase or replacement request the first time you send it to them no matter how much evidence you have to prove your car is definetly not operating normally. I found out the hard way that literally ALL of your service reports have to say literally the same exact thing phrase for phrase and word for word and each separate problem has to be numbered as a separate issue. If your service reports aren't idenital in how they're written, your best bet is to take it back to the service department until you have 30 days out of service. This is actually quite easy to do where we live but before you take it back to a dealership, take it to a transmission specialist and get their diagnosis of what's wrong with it in writing to use at arbitration as evidence. Don't let them do any work on it since that may void your warranty but do get their opinion in writing. It woud benefit you if they specifically stated that it is a transmission issue. Then take it back to your dealer. Cherokee Ford in Woodstock usually keeps mine for a week every time I take it in and I always get a complimentary loner car even though I'm under 25. Jim Tidwell kept mine for a consecutive 7 weeks last time it was in. Speaking of dealerships - avoid Hennessey Ford and Lincoln on Peachtree Industrial Blvd at all cost - they wrecked mine and took 3 tries over 3 weeks to fix it and weren't able to do a decent job so avoid that mess. When they call you and tell you your car is ready to be picked up tell them you want to drive it with the service manager or technician and verify that it is actually fixed before you pick it up. When you ride with them, point out what it's doing that isn't right and tell them you don't want it back until it's fixed. If you have to pick it up, then take it back the next day and have them work on it again. I thought we had a very solid case with our 4 repair attemps for multiple issues and applied for arbitration anyway only to get a phone call a week later to find out our case would be completely ripped to shreds in court (due to wording on the service reports). They can't argue about how many days it has been out of service so save yourself the headache and go that route. On that note, check the service reports before you leave. Make sure the wording is identical to the other reports and make sure the date it came in and the date it left are correct.
2) Apply for arbitration ASAP once you have 30 days out of service. The packet is 10 pages or longer and by the time you copy all of the documentation they need your package will be about 60+ pages but it's worth it so do it sooner rather than later. As far as the documentation goes, your bill of sale IS different from your finance agreement - something I didn't realize. Also, if your dealership neglected to give you the bill of sale when you bought the car (like in my case) they CAN still give it to you. They will tell you they don't have it and send you to a million different people to get it but if you're a big enough pain in their ass they will give it to you- this includes any service reports they're refusing to give you. When you're filling out the arbitration packet there are several things you should know. Days out of service counts weekends and weekdays and if they worked on your car and returned it to you the same day that counts as 1 day out of service. when you list your defects list all the transmission issues as one defect and use the same exact wording that's used in your service reports or it won't hold up in court. If you're having issues with the sync like I am, then list all those issues together as another defect.
3) Certified mail is much cheaper than overnighting the forms but it does take about 4 days for it to get to them and 3 or 4 more for the certified slip to get back to you.
4) If Ford initially denies your request for repurchase or replacement, but tells you to file a claim with CAC, don't bother. This was the biggest waste of my time. This is where you request that they reconsider your repurchase or replacement request by doing an "in good faith" review. They don't call you back for weeks no matter how many times you call or leave messages, their employees are rude, and when you do actually get someone on the phone they don't know anything about your case and can't provide you with any information and there is NEVER a supervisor or manager you can speak with. They'll tell you they'll have one call you in 24 or 48 hours - yeah, try 3 weeks. Complete waste of time.
5) If the dealership tells you they cant pay for you to have a loaner or rental then speak with a manager. Literally refuse to leave his office until you have a safe car to drive home. Mine is getting stuck in neutral when I try to pull out into traffic - that's not safe. Don't freak out when they pick up the phone and you hear the person on the other end ask what your "mental state" is at the moment. I was flustered lol but it did turn out to be the GM they had called and as it turns out, they WERE able to give me a complementary rental that day.
6) Keep in mind that any service visits AFTER your final repair attempt, are not considered as admissable evidence at arbitration UNLESS you resbumit your repurchase or replacement request again (after the repair visits you wish to count as evidence have occurred).
7) Once you submit your arbitration packet, you will get a call within about a week from someone at the Office of Consumer Protection to discuss your arbritation packet. They are very frank and do not sugar coat things at all. This call was devastating to me since I found out that my last 42 days out of service didn't count since they were after the final repair attempt but that's ok because they advised me to resubmit the repurchase or replacement request which made those service attempts admissible at arbitration. Anyway, they'll tell you what you need to amend and put you in line for an arbitration date. These people are on your side and they're very very helpful. Not to mention that they will return your call within a reasonable time frame.
While we were waiting to hear back from Ford about our second repurchase or replacement request, one of Ford's leagal analysts called me and said that they are going to honor my repurchase request. That was Monday. I had to send her a copy of my bill of sale and my account number for ford credit. Then, I got a call today (Thursday) from another lady who needs another copy of my bill of sale, my finance agreement, and my registration so they can calculate how much I should get for the car. She's supposed to call me back on Tuesday with an offer and she said their deadline to have this resolved is 30 days from today. My dealership messed up my paperwork and said I got $3,000 rebate on the bill of sale when I actually got a $2,000 rebate, which is correctly noted on the finance agreement. However, I'm afraid they will try to cheat me out of $1,000 that I should get back since the paperwork is incorrect, but we'll see. We might end up having to go to arbitration to get the correct amount back but we'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime I have calculated how much they should offer me, based on the formula on the lemon law website, so I will know whether or not to accept the offer. We'll see how quickly this all goes - the lady I spoke with today said their deadline to have this resolved (if I accept thier offer) is 30 days from today.
8) Claim your costs for overnighting the lemon law forms and the cost for registering your tag as incidental costs to be refunded to you as well.
9) If you're unsure whether or not you're in the Lemon Law rights timeframe, call the Office of Consumer Protection and ask. They're extremely helpful.
10) We thought it was be easier to get ford to agree to replace my car as opposed to repurchasing it. After talking to the lady who is sending my stuff to the calculations department, I found out that it actually takes a little longer to get a replacement car than to have them repurchase yours and it's no easier to get them to do one or the other.
11) They have informed me that when you accept their offer, you set up a time to meet at your local dealer to sign all the papers. You can either sign everything and give them the keys and wait to get your check in a couple weeks through the mail OR you can sign all the papers except the odometer statement and something else about the condition of your car and then keep the car until the dealership recieves your check, then go and sign the other two papers and surrender your car and get your check at the same time.
12) Its actually a blessing that you don't have the latest software update because according to the service manager at Jim Tidwell "Ford has programmed the computer to hold the accelerator at idle for a second after you take your foot off the gas to lessen the bogging" so they have admittedly and purposely programmed my gas petal to stick and WILL NOT change it back. Believe me it is NOT FUN having a gas petal that sticks.
13) When you take it to the service department, you need to know what the new and current tsb says and check to make sure they did what it calls for. They always tell me they've just reflashed the computer and that it is fixed until I tell them what the new tsb says and then they'll do what they need to do. For me, this was replacing my clutch (twice) but they wouldn't do it until I refrenced the tsb.
I know this is a long post but I hope all of this was helpful to you and I wish you the best of luck with your case. Be persistent and a genuine pain in Ford's rear end.
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