How do you determine if your car is a lemon year?

Question

I have a 97 malibu and everything that breaks on it is so hard to fix. I bought a hanes manual that runs from like 94-99 and everything is says about it, it says except in 97. Apparently for that one year they tried new stuff and didn't like it. Does this mean it's a lemon year?

I did a car fax report which said my car was great. where do i research to find out if people are having similar problems?

Answer 1

Well I have to admit,...this one surprised me. I looked p complaints to the NHTSA & found over 600 complaints.
Here is the link to see all of them:
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/complain/complaintresults.cfm?start=1&SearchType=DrillDown&type=1&year=1997&make=CHEVROLET&model=MALIBU&component_id=0&PrintVersion=YES

I truly was surprised by the amount of complaints.
I've never really considered ANY vehicle as having a "lemon year" but this apparently was a lousy year for Malibu.

Answer 2

I would do a search on the year and model of the car to see if other people are reporting the same kinds of issues.

I find that the amount of "lemon" a car experiences is directly proportional to the amount of maintenance it recieves.

Answer 3

Calling a car a lemon in just slang for it's a piece of crap. There's no such thing as an "official lemon". You're car would probably be considered one although it's still fairly new.

Answer 4

You cant always say that a "lemon-car" is what it is because
of the maintenace/service it has receiced.

My Sunderland-built NISSAN ALMERA suffered from every
possible defect even before it was due for its first service.

If it had been a direct Japanese import it would probably
been OK.

Answer 5

you can look it up on car fax

Answer 6

edmunds.com will show ratings from owners.

Maybe it's time to sell it and cut your losses.

Answer 7

this is easy

foreign vehicles = no lemon
domestic = lemon