My Lemon Law Experience and Lessons Learned Regarding New and Used EV Purchases

[ngkgb]

I have now owned 4 EV's, 2 Taycans and 2 Mercedes, both are great driving cars made by great car manufacturers but buying outright can be a huge financial hit if you are not careful. There are many opportunities for purchasing recently deprecated EVs, cars that have low miles and appear as new with great warranties.

My story: I bought a new 2022 Taycan 4 CT, loaded with more than 30K in options, drove the car for 30 months and put 40,000 miles on it before deciding to lemon law the car. It spent a lot of time in the shop due to small electronic failures (door lock/unlock, key recognition failure, etc..), the car always drove great, was fun to drive, but these little mis-firings were driving me nuts. I just didn't want to be stuck with a car that was out of warranty and kept malfunctioning. I turned the car in last October with 48,080 miles on the “clock”, I drove it through the end of the warranty! I was awarded my money from the original sale minus 2k for use before the first repair (it is a lemon law stipulation and formula). The cost of car + sales tax + DMV fees were reimbursed + 15K in civil damages. I paid my attorney 7k and bought a 2023 MB EQS 450+ which came off of a 1-year lease for less than 1/2 of retail (48K).

The Taycan had lost more than 1/2 of its value and got me thinking about this severe depreciation for EVs, I feel like I came out of a doomed situation on top. If you are looking for an EV, do yourself a favor and buy one that has depreciated and PLEASE buy from a well-established manufacturer such as MB or Porsche. Many of these new EV manufacturers are not going to be around very long, and you don’t want to be stuck with a car that cannot be serviced (FISKAR).

Why MB? Mercedes EQS has great range, 350+ miles per charge, the interior is very plush and well equiped. The Taycan was more fun and you can always steer in that direction but I did also pick-up a 2021 992.1 Carrera 4S and that car is a blast.

Are you in Cali? You had to lay your attorney out of your own pocket? I recently lemoned my Rivian after 2.5 years and didn’t have to pay a dime out of pocket.

Edit: nvm. Saw you got 15k in “damages” as well. Makes sense now.

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[ngkgb]

The other thing one can do to avoid massive depreciation is lease. There are lots of goood lease deals floating around.

 

[ngkgb]

In all seriousness, although forum members here are typically united in getting out their virtual pitchforks in rage over what some of us have endured with our Taycans in the shop for long periods of time, and repeatedly so .. the only substantive items we have on this are:

• Drove 40k in the first 30 months.
• Kept the car until 48,080 miles.
• After using the car that much over that period of time, received back the price paid + sales tax + DMV fees - $2k usage fee + $15k damages - $7k legal fees, which works out to an entirely free ownership of a Taycan for 48,080 miles plus a bonus $6k.

I’m all for tough consumer protection laws, and I’m as annoyed as anyone else by having a car tied up for one frustrating problem after another, but if I could get paid $6k to put up with all that while paying $0 for the ownership of a Taycan for 48k miles, sign me up!

He didn’t mention weather he the the 7500 EV tax credit or not. That would be another 7500.

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