What happens to lemon cars after they are bought back?

Question

My Chevy Aveo was defective and after a lawsuit, turned out to be a lemon. It had multiple suspension and steering issues. It's my first new car and I'm sad to see it go, but it's for the better.

My best friend said that the maufacturer is going to destroy the car, as they can't sell it. But I've heard of lemons being bought as used cars.

I'd be sad to know that my car will no longer exist, but it brought up a good point; what happens to the cars labeled as lemons?

Answer 1

Well, let's see...the manufacturer could destroy the car, and lose money on the deal. Or else they could do a little work and claim they "fixed" it...and then sell it at auction to one of those "Honest Ed---Buy Here, Pay Here" used car lots and probably break about even.
What do YOU think they'll do?

Answer 2

I once had a car that had an engine failure at 14,000 miles (all maintenance was current, done at the dealership). After several attempts at repairing the engine, the factory finally told the dealership to replace the engine and send the defective one back to the factory. They wanted to be able to find out *exactly* what had gone wrong. I don't know the exact answer to your question, but my first guess would be that most manufacturers would want to do the same thing. I would think they would want to rule out design flaws, or find out where the problem occurred in the manufacturing process. While they might lose money on a single "lemon", they'll save money in the long run by finding out how to not let the same thing happen again.

Answer 3

Standard procedure, they will do exactly what they did the earlier time. It's called 'refurbishing' and it can be quite different what actually happens. For instance, in 'refurbishing' any component in the car, which may have been find to be have worn out is replaced. But what happens if this list of components becomes very big and the bill hits into the market price of the middle aged car being refurbished. And because the economic objective of doing 'refurbishing' is to make better margin ie money for the seller .. well some unscrupulous car resellers would try to palm off one or two lemons thinking that they will behave like a strong citizen like you and dared to ask for some salt and tequila!

Answer 4

Your friend is wrong. Vehicles that are bought back are reconditioned and repaired. They are then resold as used vehilces at auction.

However, these vehicles are labeled as CBB (customer buy back) vehicles when they are re-sold, so the new owner (whether a dealership or individual) will know that the car was bought back before they purchase the vehicle.

The manufacturer does not have to disclose why the car was bought back, but they must disclose that the vehicle was a CBB.

Answer 5

The minute you turn your back it is on the market. Some unscrupulous dealer will pick it up for nothing and foist it upon an unsuspecting purchaser at a handsome profit.

Answer 6

To be honest, I don't know. I would think that the manufacturer would want to take it apart and let their engineer's look at it and find out what the problem was, so that they can fix it for the next model year, or put out a TSB and make all the servicemen aware of the problem and the correct fix.

That would make sense to me. good luck.

Answer 7

it will be resold as is to some dumbazz like me that will have a ton of problems and turn around and sell it to another dumb person and so on and so on