Lemons Cars
 

Hello all, I am looking to get into a GTs and when searching on the normal internet sales sites (cargurus, autotrader, etc.) there seems to be a handful that have been reported as Lemons. Is this an issue with the 2016 model?

The interesting thing is that they are being listed and not at that much of a discount.

I find it hard to believe they are listed as “ Lemons” . Where are these listings?

most of the cars listed are low mileage. Most car guys are itching to dump their new acquisitions before their ass has imprinted into the seat. As low mileage cars, they are not given away for free.

go to cargurus.com. Search nationwide for AMG. Sort by “lowest price first” then look at the first few. If you scroll down the CARFAX indicates Lemons.

Keep in mind that this new cars are sold to people that many times turn crazy for little things, high profile customers that dealers want to keep as customers forever, make things easy for them. Dealer should disclose all problems.

I did notice this too during my search. They're not listed as lemons right off the bat. But several on the bottom end of pricing are lemons when you check the carfax.
My local dealer says it usually doesn't involve major issues. Personally I still wouldn't buy one due to resale but it seems they were small issues.

Do you think that a dealer would run a vin to see the issues even if they don’t have the car on the lot?

Any smart dealer will run the VIN and do some research on the car. They know it's a huge risk to them to aquire a car with a red flag. They also look for things for leverage to aquire the car as cheap as possible.
As for the lemon cars, I noticed it was never a MB dealer that had lemon cars on the lot. It was always a small dealership that listed them and didn't mention the lemon title right off the bat. One I was dealing with (small Florida dealer) tried selling the car for a clean title price. Didn't initially disclose it to me and even used the term "clean title". I had to point it out on the carfax and he said clean carfax to him means no accidents. Do your due diligence. Although some of the lemon cars are not bad cars and it may be the owners being a pain for every small thing, it would still be a tall order to try and sell down the road.

Let me remind my fellow Californians this about our state's Lemon Law: California has very protective Lemon Law, probably the most consumer-oriented such laws in the United States. If you want to take advantage of the California Lemon Law, your car had to have been bought in California from a California dealer. (Cummins, Inc. v. Superior Court, 36 Cal.4th 478, 30 Cal.Rptr.3d 823, 115 P.3d 98 (2005))

The AMG GT seems to be pretty trouble-free, but there are lemons out there. Forewarned is forearmed.

From what I have been told by many the AMG GT's had issues when they first came around.

AMG GTs Lemon Issue
 

He’s 100% right. I almost bought a 2016 (used) but when I really did some digging it’d been flagged as a lemon.

They seemed to work out the kinks in 2018, but you’ll see a TON of ones from 2016 & 2017 with lemon issues or multiple owners on a car with less than 15K miles - which is a red flag for me.

The problem is the 2018’s are way higher priced, so waiting for a used or CPO one to drop into my range will be quite a while.

Unless you're paying cash, the finance arm of your deal will tend to be REALLY cautious about extending a loan on a car that has a lemon branding.

There are many different reasons why a car is bought back (sometimes the Lemon is the owner not the car) and when the GTS was first shown dealers got a lot of preorders (in other words old fat guys that had never sat in one or driven one) from longtime customers. Many of those customers thought it was a hardtop SL (which it is not) Some of the cars were bought back from owners for things like the battery kept dying (because it sat because they did not like driving it) it burned too much oil (if that was a real reason every 911 would have been a lemon), and believe it or not they could not find a comfortable seating position (yes they were bought back for that reason too). I was offered one of those buyback cars (the reason it was bought back never occurred in the 21/2 years I have owned it) and I paid half of its 155K sticker price. Unlike most owners I don't care what a car will be worth to the next owner I only care about the purpose I have for it.

**eyeroll**

uh....

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...e2eb330868.png

When you buy a lemon law car or a car with a branded title you will buy it below market price. But when you sell it or try to trade it most dealer don’t want it and will wholesale it. If you plan on keeping it it can be a good deal. Several years from now all that will matter is mileage and condition.

That's not what lemon law is at all. Stop spreading bull****.

Banks get really nervous about lending money for cars like this. Usually, you will have to deal in cash or have access to a loan that isn't secured by the car as the asset.

Or simply higher interest.

True, but traditional banks won't touch them (should tell you something about the risk). If you don't have cash, or other assets to secure the loan, it will most likely be a non-traditional loan source with credit card type interest rates,. Unsecured cash loans aren't really a thing for most people and bank actuaries are allergic to lemons.

And another point not yet mentioned - If you're planning on purchasing a salvage titled car which crosses over into the definition of branded title in some states or reconstructed title, check with your insurance company first as well. Some insurance companies will not cover such.

And some states are more liberal about branded titles...for example, some buybacks will pass through a state like TX and issue the title with a cleansed branding because TX the type of buy back didn't require it.

BMW was doing this for a period of time (not sure if they still do.

Yeah, there was another state too, I want to say Kentucky?? that became a popular pass through state for flood cars that were declared salvage as it didn't have a salvage title classification in its system. That means they would possibly be able to scrub a lemon. However, you cannot get past Carfax usually...Caveat Emptor.

Florida is real bad about issuing new titles.

Or that might be real good if it protects downstream purchasers.

As I recall, a lot of water damaged cars come from Florida.

First, I never lie (you have to care what something else thinks to want to lie unlike you normal people I don't). After you have owned a 300 or 400 cars (63 of them MB's) you may get somewhat of an idea of my experiences with cars has been. I never once stated that my comments were how Leman laws work I only was giving information (some of which none of you have access to) regarding the GTS and that many were bought back for reasons that were not the machines fault. My car has a clean title (banks will give a loans on buyback salvage cars or rebuilt titles are not the same as lemon buyback cars) it just says it was a buyback from customer on the carfax. I had the car sent to my dealer when it arrived and they went over it and found absolutely nothing wrong with it, and as I said it has never once had the issue it was bought back for. Lemon laws work different in every state, but at times car companies (I have had two cars bought back out of 489) will agree to buy a car back without going through lemon laws to keep a long standing customer of the brand satisfied (just like MB paid most of the bill to fix an issue on my car after the warranty ended). There is no one fix (or story) that fits all buyback cars, but it seems some of you believe the car is always the issue. It is not, cars are machines, machines can be fixed. Humans well that is another story, but they are a lot harder to fix.