In accordance with the Arizona lemon law, a vehicle defect impairs a vehicle and prevents its proper functioning and value. One can prove significant impairment by pointing to problems involving safety, regular maintenance breakdowns, unsuccessful attempts to make the vehicle operable, and long periods the vehicle spends at a repair shop.
If a manufacturer cannot repair a defect in a vehicle and it substantially impairs its use and value, it may be required to buy the vehicle back or provide a replacement under Arizona’s lemon law.
However, it is important to understand that a defect is not automatically considered as such just because it is expensive, inconvenient, or annoying. A defect must substantially impair the vehicle’s use and value.
What Makes Your Car Substantially Impaired?
1. Impairment of Use
A defect affects the functioning of a vehicle when it significantly hinders the capacity of an owner to use the automobile for its usual, intended purposes. The evaluation is based not only on the possibility of driving but also on the effectiveness of its performance. Hence, a vehicle can be operational but at the same time terribly impaired.
Some examples include repeated failure of the engine, transmission breakdown, flawed steering or braking, constant overheating of the engine, repeated electrical failure, and conditions that lead to the vehicle frequently entering into low-power mode. Defects can make a vehicle unusable if the owner cannot rely on the vehicle for the purpose of commuting, carrying other people, or hauling within the capability of the vehicle itself.
Qualifying issues are those that substantially affect the use and value of a vehicle and prevent it from conforming to the manufacturer’s express warranty.
2. Impairment of Market Value
Market value impairment relates to how the unrepaired defect affects the value of the vehicle when it comes time to resell or trade it.
When it comes to any substantial mechanical or electrical issue with the automobile, the value may prove to be lower even when the vehicle being inspected appears to be working well on the inspection day itself. A number of unsuccessful attempts at fixing the car, evidence of continuous trouble, and long hours spent in repairs can make the automobile a less favorable choice on the market.
Factors indicating a diminished value of the vehicle could include trade-in quotations from car dealers, official valuations from appraisers, proof of repairs, expert witnesses, comparable vehicle sales and evidence that potential buyers rejected or reduced the price of the car because of the unresolved problem.
3. The Standard Is Fact-Specific
Arizona laws don’t specify a fixed amount of money or percentage that directly indicates substantial impairments. Instead, the determination depends on the nature and frequency of the defect.
Slight blemishes, sounds, and troubles that can be easily fixed may not qualify unless they are so severe in nature that they become significant. In contrast, defects connected with braking, steering, acceleration, airbags, engine failure, or structure may be considered significant due to their influence on normal performance of the vehicle and its value.
The frequency of repairs is another topic altogether. In Arizona, the manufacturer is assumed to have had ample opportunity to repair the car when the same problem has been subject to repair 4 or more times and continues to exist or when the vehicle has spent at least 30 total calendar days in the shop during the applicable warranty period. However, just because you meet that presumption, it does not mean that you do not have to show that there is a substantial defect. The consumer must also provide the manufacturer with direct written notice and an opportunity to repair the defect before relying on this presumption.
Consumers should record how the defect affects their day-to-day activities, safety, usability, and the vehicle’s resale value. Some examples of evidence that can show the problem is not merely an inconvenience but a real factor that negatively affects a consumer include repair orders, pictures and videos, call logs, towing receipts, records of absence from work, and a timeline of events.
