goatfishbird

I have put my a4 camaro ss up for sale in the hopes of finding another like it with a six speed and without rs ground effects. I found an 01 SS that really catches my eye and I thought it was too good to be true. Unfortunately the car is registered under the title history as a lemon law car. There have been no reported accidents or damage of any kind to the car. The owner informed me of this before I ran the vin and I checked it out. This was all in the lower comments of the Carfax under the first owner:

Maintenance inspection completed
Oil and filter changed
Tires rotated
Tire(s) balanced
Thrust angle alignment performed
Two wheel alignment performed
A/C and heating control assembly replaced ***(issue)
Wiper arm/linkage adjusted
Wiper switch replaced ***(issue)
Tilt steering adjustment rod replaced*** (issue)

The driver window motor was also replaced three times (common problem I know) as well as the starter.

All of these parts failed before 2003 when new(ish), have been fixed and haven't had issues since, I would be worried if it was the electrical system. These seem to be not that big a deal for a car that is already 12 years old, maybe not for a new owner. The current owner has had the car for over 8 years with no real issues. Just wanted to know if you guys would go for it or not in my position. Sorry for the wall of text.

Chaotic Deconstruct

Depends on the price I suppose. That car definitely had some issues in the past that were electrical in origin such as series of bad grounds or back-feed issues.

JDEP162

curiositys killin me whats the price on the car

NC01TA

Sounds like this poor car went through the assembly line at quitting time before a 3 day weekend!
IMO I would treat a 'lemon' car the same way I would treat a salvage title car. Simply put, a car to avoid unless you know the car's complete history or the owner himself. The price would have to reflect that as well. I'm not going to get into it again with the professional sellers of these salvage title cars that post here. Their opinions differ wildly from what I believe. They have to 'spin it' or they wouldn't be in business.
You decide.

goatfishbird

Thanks for the info, I really don't know too much about the whole lemon title thing, never ran into a car like this one before. The seller is asking 12, 500, its an 2001 SS slp car with 52k. Also have my eye on a 99 WS6 with the same mileage and a little cheaper so that might be wise to get instead. Just curious to see if anyone here ever bought a used lemon, I know sellers are a bad source of info. Thanks again.

demonspeed

iTrader: (7)

$12,500? That's not a good price at all for a car with "lemon law" branding. You can find a nice, no stories, SS for the same price.

Unless you could get it down to like $8000 or less then I'd pass.

NC01TA

x2. Agree completely. This is a buyer's market. Even $8,000 might be a gamble. There aren't many things in life more annoying than a car that lives in the shop. Why buy someone else's misery? It could be fine and repaired by now but why gamble and take on an unnecessary risk? goatfishbird, I am glad you posted here. Not only for your own benefit but for others as well.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I wonder if there's a way to find out more details on the specific reason for the manufacturer buy-back? This would be the first thing I would look into.

This is a good sign, assuming the current owner has actually been using the car over those 8 years and giving it a chance to have issues, if it was going to. I can't see someone keeping the car for this long if it really was an always-problematic lemon.

In the end, any used car is a gamble. You might pass on this car thinking it's going to be a hassle, then buy one that was never labeled as a "lemon" but that has a bunch of issues shortly after purchase simply because it's old and/or wasn't as well maintained as you had hoped.

I would look at this as a red flag to investigate further, but not necessarily a sole reason to immediately walk away. Having said that, the price is too high considering this information, in addition to the year and mileage.

goatfishbird

This is what I was trying to dig for, but unfortunately I have no idea how to begin besides a carfax report. That is a fair amount of problems for a 1-2 year old car to have, I would have given in back myself.



This is the only thing keeping me from walking away asap. In total the car has had 4 owners, although the second I assume would be the dealer taking it back into possession. This last guy supposedly took real good care of it, but I have no idea how much he actually drove it, it could have sat in a garage most of the time. I would be depending on the car as a daily and it need to be reliable. HOWEVER I do know the car has been stock its entire life, the only aftermarket part was a new clutch which I was fairly happy about until this title issue popped up. Hoping that is a good indication of how its been treated since the initial repairs.

Agreed, I don't want to pay the price of a perfect car to end up with one sporting a branded title, already have other leads on a 2001 WS6 as well as a 99 WS6 for less and a clean title. Thanks guys you've been a great help.

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

Seems more like a "whiney-bitch-can't-maintain-their-
vehicle", maybe coupled with a "dealership is dumb
asses", than a "lemon" per se. Just stupid simple
electrical **** for the most part, nothing to do with
the powertrain.

But, yeah, the dollars seem a bit high. One question
is, does the "lemon law" tag persist or is only there
"for your protection" and gets scrubbed in the transfer?
That would vary state by state I expect.

demonspeed

iTrader: (7)

That's what I was thinking. Take a look on Camaro5 and you'll see this daily.

goatfishbird

Again, that was the only thing keeping my interest, nothing was too major just a lot of little crap. In my area I have a hard time finding a deal any cheaper than that, most people want $14,000 or more for an F-body with around 50k, completely ridiculous. Just have to be patient I suppose. Anyways, in Ohio the lemon title persists through every owner. It is included in the category: Salvage | Junk | Rebuilt | Fire | Flood | Hail | Lemon and looks to be permanently branded. There is an Alert Problem Found! under all four owners in that category. It has never left Ohio and the phrase (Body Electrical System checked) appears a lot under owner #1, owner# 2 was the dealer and had it for a month, owner #3 had the car 1 year and 9 months and had the electrical system checked once, but no problems reported. Owner #4 (current owner) bought the car in 2005 and had zero issues with it since then according to the carfax.

Ghostintheshell

Avoid it.