Lawyers can often prove a claim by using a large number of tools, so it is never your word against theirs. In this sense at least, you should feel at ease. You might be wondering how you can win a case when the repair records given to me by the dealer state that the problem was never found. Well good lawyers are ready for this too.
Manipulation and/or poor preparation of repair records is one of the biggest concerns these days in regards to lemon law cases. When a car is taken to a dealer for a warranty repair, what most people don't know is that several copies of the repair order are made within the service department, most of these the customer never sees, even if asked.
Each repair that is performed contains the following copies: customer; warranty payment; accounting and even a hard copy that shows all of the mechanics notes that were made for each repair. Most of the time these notes are not available to the customer; however, the customer copy will list a problem that is the most often complained about but the dealer's actions might read could not duplicate customer concerns.
For that matter, it's not entirely common for the hard copy to show you that the mechanic found the problem but has also been instructed not to try to do any repairs because no simple procedure can actually fix it. When this happens, you, the customer gets left with the very wrong idea that the car is operating properly and will unknowingly drive it anyway; with a potentially dangerous defect.
You may be wondering why this is seen so often. It could be that a certain make or model in specific may suffer from a uniform problem such as a defective door latch which the manufacturer still hasn't corrected.
Since there isn't a factory authorized repair that was completed at the time, the dealer is told to either write could not duplicate or maybe vehicle operating as designed and next thing that you know the dealer sends you, the customer, home with repairs still needed, but not performed.
Another reason that always seems to pop up is time. This is particularly the dealer's time. Many dealers simply don't have the resources anymore and the mechanics that they need are not around in order to properly diagnose and address a concern. Under warranty procedures that are utilized by manufacturers, which is a problem that goes undiagnosed by a mechanic, will not be paid.
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