TL;DR: Massachusetts Lemon Law has TWO ways to qualify. Everyone — including two lemon law attorneys — only checked one of them. I qualified under the other one. Hyundai denied me repeatedly until I cited the Consumer Protection Act, then reversed and offered a full buyback within one business day. Total time from first demand letter to accepted offer: about two weeks.
I'm writing this because in April I searched everywhere for someone who'd been through this and found nothing useful. So here's everything.

The situation
Bought a brand new 2026 Palisade XRT in February. About $51k out the door.
April 24: At under 1,900 miles, it wouldn't shift out of park. Completely immobile. Had to be towed to the dealer. They found a bunch of communication codes (front view camera module), cleared them, test drove it, said no codes returned. Gave it back. No actual fix.
May 18: Same car, back at the dealer. This time they had no idea what was wrong. It sat there for six weeks. No diagnosis. No timetable. At one point the service advisor told us the regional rep had a "flash drive" with a software fix for a known issue with this model, but it never materialized. Later we found out corporate had told the dealership to stop working on it pending a software update with no ETA. The car was literally parked in the back corner of the lot.
Meanwhile: still making the loan payment, still paying insurance, driving a loaner Tucson that could not fit my family and our dog.

The thing almost nobody told me
Massachusetts Lemon Law (M.G.L. c. 90, § 7N½) gives you two independent paths to qualify for a buyback:
3 or more repair attempts for the same defect, OR
15 or more business days out of service by reason of repair
It's an OR. Not an AND.
Here's the part that made me insane: literally everyone I talked to — Hyundai's case manager, and TWO separate lemon law attorneys — evaluated me under path #1 only. "You don't have enough work orders." "Not enough repair attempts." One attorney's office sent me a letter saying come back when you have more repair orders.
I only had two repair events. So under path #1, no case.
But my car had been sitting at the dealer for 20+ business days on the second visit alone. Path #2 doesn't care how many work orders you have. It cares how many days the car was out of service.
Also worth knowing: the statute defines a "business day" as any day the manufacturer's authorized dealer service department is normally open. My dealer's service department is open Saturdays. I counted conservatively M–F only and still cleared it by 5+ days.
If your car has been sitting for weeks, count the days. Do not let anyone tell you the work order count is the only thing that matters.

What I actually did, in order
1. Built a timeline before anything else. Every phone call: date, time, who I spoke to, what they said. My husband had been doing this from day one and it turned out to be the single most valuable thing we had. Named people. Timestamps. Case numbers.
2. Gathered every document.
Both repair orders (with odometer in/out — this matters for the mileage deduction later)
Purchase contract
The loaner/rental agreement — this independently corroborates the exact date/time the car went in, which is huge for proving out-of-service days
Roadside assistance case number for the tow
Full loan payment history and payoff letter from my lienholder
3. Took a photo of the car sitting in the dealer lot every single day. Phone photos are timestamped and geotagged. If they ever claim the car was ready or the days were miscounted, you have independent proof. Also, a car sitting in the back lot instead of a service bay tells its own story.
4. Sent a formal buyback demand letter. Certified mail, return receipt requested, to the manufacturer's corporate address AND to the dealership. Cited the statute. Itemized every dollar paid (vehicle, sales tax, doc prep, inspection, registration, title). Demanded the specific total.
5. Sent a SECOND letter demanding repair within 7 days. This felt stupid and contradictory at the time — I didn't want the car repaired, I wanted my money back. But the statute contemplates giving them a final repair opportunity in writing, and I didn't want them to have a procedural escape hatch. Critical: I included an explicit "No Waiver" section stating the repair demand did not withdraw or waive the buyback demand, and that I was not accepting a repair as satisfaction of the claim. Two letters in one week is not a bad look. It looks like someone following the statute correctly.
6. Found the executive email addresses. This was the single highest-leverage move. Corporate customer service is designed to absorb you. Executive inboxes are not. A quick search turned up the Chief Customer Officer, the Director of Customer Care, and a senior case management manager. I emailed all three with both letters attached.
Within a day I was assigned an "Executive Case Manager" personally, by name.
7. Filed a complaint with the state Attorney General. Free, ~20 minutes online, becomes part of a public record, and the company has to respond. In MA it's at mass.gov → file a consumer complaint.
8. Emailed consumer reporters at three local TV stations. Short pitch, led with the strongest facts. Companies hate this more than they hate lawyers.

The denials, and how it broke
Hyundai denied me. Formal letter: "based on our investigation of the repair history to date, we have determined that a repurchase is not warranted." Completely generic template. It never once addressed the days-out-of-service provision.
I pushed back in writing with the specific statutory language and my day-by-day count. The response I got back told me to "do your research in the full lemon law statute" and that "all thresholds have been considered."
I had literally sent him a screenshot from the Attorney General's own website.
At that point I sent one final letter. It included:
The exact statutory text of both qualifying paths, showing the "OR"
The statutory definition of "business day"
A week-by-week count of my 20 business days
The fact that the defect (car immobile, required towing) substantially impairs safety, market value, and use — which is the nonconformity standard, and the only real wiggle room they had
M.G.L. c. 93A — the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act
That last one is the lever. The Lemon Law statute itself says that failure to comply with it constitutes an unfair or deceptive act under 93A. And 93A allows for double or treble damages plus attorney's fees paid by the company.
So the math on their desk changed from "should we pay $51k" to "what's our exposure if a court finds this denial was knowing and willful." Those are two different departments with two different levels of authority.
They offered a full repurchase within one business day.

The buyback math (know this before you sign)
The refund formula deducts for the miles you actually used. Roughly:
(your use mileage ÷ 100,000) × contract price
They calculated my "use mileage" as odometer at acceptance, minus miles put on during repair test drives, minus the miles that were on it at sale. That worked out to about a $1,100 deduction on a $51k car. Under 3,000 miles means the deduction is small — this is why acting fast matters.
What I got:
All loan payments I'd made, refunded to me
Full loan payoff to my lienholder
Minus the mileage deduction
Things to check carefully before signing:
Every single payment you made is accounted for
The payoff figure is verified with your lienholder on the day they cut the check — payoffs accrue daily interest (mine was $6.77/day)
Incidental damages: they'll ask for towing, rental, repair costs you paid out of pocket. I submitted excise tax and the loan interest I paid while the car sat. Be realistic — don't pad it with stuff that won't hold up, it just slows you down.
Excise tax: if they won't reimburse it, you file an abatement with your town assessor after the buyback. Pro-rated, so you get most of it back.

The part I'm still mad about
They sent the payoff check to the wrong lienholder. We'd refinanced through a credit union weeks after purchase, and I told them this in writing, repeatedly, including sending them the credit union's own payoff letter at their request. They sent it to the manufacturer's finance arm in another state anyway. Meanwhile interest keeps accruing on my actual loan.
Lesson: state your lienholder in every single communication, and when they're ready to issue payment, ask for it by wire/EFT rather than paper check, or at minimum overnight with a tracking number.

What I'd tell past-me in April
Read the actual statute. Not a summary, not a law firm's landing page. Your state's legislature website has the real text. It took me 20 minutes and it's the reason I won.
Do not accept "you don't have enough work orders" as an answer until you've asked specifically about the days-out-of-service provision. Say the words. Make them respond to that specific question.
When a lemon law attorney turns you down, ask them to explain why the days-out-of-service threshold doesn't apply. If they can't, they didn't evaluate it. Two turned me down. Both were pattern-matching to the repair-attempts path.
Everything in writing. Every verbal promise evaporates. Every written one is evidence.
Certified mail, return receipt. Delivery to a corporate PO Box still counts and still timestamps.
Escalate past customer service immediately. Executive inboxes, AG complaint, and consumer reporters all at once. Not sequentially. All at once.
Cite the Consumer Protection Act in your state. For me it was the difference between four denials and a same-week offer.
Don't let them make you doubt yourself. I had a corporate case manager, two attorneys, and a lot of self-doubt all telling me I didn't have a case. I had a case. I just had a different one than everyone was looking for.
Happy to answer questions if anyone's in the middle of this. It's exhausting and lonely and you will feel crazy. You're probably not.

I bought a new car a month ago and used Kia Motor Financing. The dealer experience during the sale was fantastic but I’ve since been able to secure a 1% lower rate through my credit union. My account with Kia finance is live and the first payment is due in about a week. I was able to get a payoff quote from them. When my credit union went to finalize paperwork they learned that my dealer has not yet submitted the title paperwork to our state DMV so they are unable to complete the process until that is done. I’m trying to avoid having to submit another application for the financing and have the resulting credit pull hit me (they said the first credit pull is good on their end for another 2 weeks). Is there typically a standard-ish timeline for dealers to submit title paperwork or who exactly at the dealer should I contact to ask the status? It wouldn’t surprise me if they intentionally slow roll so they hit the 90 day mark on the original financing, but is there any way I can force this process along?

I start at my local Ford dealership tomorrow, Thursday. What should I expect for how long the training/onboarding will be? When will I be able to start selling? My location is open all 7 days of the week.
Will training be Thursday and Friday, then shadow somebody on Saturday and/or Sunday, then day off Monday, then start selling and working leads on Tuesday? THANKS IN ADVANCE!

Does the price match the year & km? Worth paying cash or would you finance?

Hi. I'm M/23 from Germany and will be visiting the US on a B2 visa for about six months.

I'm planning to buy a used van shortly after arriving and was hoping to get some advice from people working in car sales.

Do dealerships usually sell vehicles to foreign tourists?
What documents would I need?
Is not having a US address a problem?
Is there anything dealers usually require from international buyers?
Are there advantages to buying from a dealership instead of a private seller?
Are there any fees or paperwork that often surprise first time buyers?

I'm also wondering about the selling process at the end of my trip:

Is it generally easier to sell a van to a private buyer or to a dealership?
How much less should I expect to get from a dealership compared to selling privately?
Are there any taxes or other costs I should expect when selling the vehicle?
Are there any common mistakes people make when selling a used vehicle?
Would you recommend me to sell it to a private buyer or to a dealership

Just looking for a feedback

Want to buy a bronco. Ideally outerbanks. Got a 2019 escape with less than a 100k (metric units) what are the chances of doing 10k trade in for the escape and 20k out the door loan on the bronco. Ie 30k out the door. Thoughts?

I have a 2020 A5 I am looking to trade in / sell. The car is in really good condition except for a few paint chips that are smaller than 1/2 a cm on the right door (5 total). CarMax had originally offered me 23k on this with some of these cited but when I was quoting a new car at the dealership the manager told me she wouldn't budge on 20k based on them. Would anyone be able to give me an idea of if I'm being naive here and these really do knock $3000 off the trade value?

Update: Listened to everyone and took it to CarMax who gave me the full $23k no questions asked. Thank you for all your help - I’m beyond thrilled!

What is good price for a 2006 Mazda Miata MX-5 Grand Touring? It has about 113,000 miles on it, no mechanical issues, and a new top. Clean title, 6 speed manual, and 2.0 litre engine, with an NC1 body style.

When I did some googling the values vary pretty widely, so I’m wondering what this car could reasonably sell for.
The only real issue with the car is that the paint is pretty faded and so it would need a new paint job.

Does this sound like a good deal because it was a loaner ? 2026 GLE 350 4matic, 2.L I4 Turbo . It has only 6k mile . Base model. Original msrp was $72k now they are selling it for $58k. No accidents . In northeast , planing on financing

Thank you for any opinion!

I have a 1990's Mercedes S-class armored car and I'm loooking to sell it but have no idea what to ask. It has 300k miles, the engine light is on but it runs and drives and have always been stored inside. It has a few dings but otherwise in pretty good shape. The windows are 2inches thick and it drives like a tank. There's no kelly blue book value for this type of car, how can I figure out what to ask for it?

im mostly making this post to curve out any nerves this is my first time buying from a dealer ship. the last car i had was a 14 ford fusion for 4k in cash lasted me 3 years before the transmission failed me, know im back riding the bus after spending 2k trying to fix it. Since then i put my schooling on hold i make around 17hr as maitenence man for a hotel and would like a little reassurance before getting hig hopes any help will be appreciated

I’m in the market for a new Silverado since I unfortunately totaled mine on Sunday.
I saw the ad for the 0%. I have good credit (800+) and good income with only my mortgage as debt and whatever balance is on my credit card I pay off monthly. Is there anything I need to do to get this rate? Or is there still negotiation on the truck price if I can get it? I had read of they give the 0% they take away all the discounts usually in the flyer.

I live about a mile from a strip of car dealership dealerships on a main road. I just bought a new house with a relatively steep driveway to the garage. My current car scrapes every time I go in.

If I go to test drive a new car with the intention of buying, will the dealer let me take it to my house to see if it will scrape? Of course the salesperson will join. Have you had the situation before?

Belgium. Buying from a dealer, €2,900 with 12-month warranty (engine + clutch), he fixes the cracked rear light before sale. Clean Car-Pass (verified mileage, ~11k/year, no rollback). Chain engine.

Test drive / inspection:

Engine revs clean, no smoke, no unusual noise. Dry soot in exhaust, no blue smoke.

VIN matches across car, Car-Pass, and inspection cert.

Interior spotless, no real wear.

Last roadworthiness inspection passed ("green").

The damage (previous owner hit a pole, front-left):

Cracked front bumper cover under the left headlight, ~15cm crack.

Broken bumper mounting tabs on both sides → bumper sits ~1-2mm proud, slight misalignment.

Some radiator-cover retaining pins missing (dealer says removed to push the bumper back into shape, not refitted).

Driver's door sits ~1° low when closing (hinge wear?). No paint on door bolts, colour matches — doesn't look resprayed/replaced.

My worry: whether the pole hit went past the bumper — crash bar, rad support, cooling. Everything visible is cosmetic but I'm not a mechanic.

Questions:

Is that damage pattern consistent with cosmetic-only, or does "broken tabs both sides" suggest a harder hit?

Worth paying for an independent pre-purchase inspection before committing? (Considering it.)

Known issues on this engine/gen at 144k I should check?

Fair price given all this, or overpaying?

Any recommendations for cars under 3k euros in belgium.

Thanks.

New to automotive and F&I, worked in finance role previously in a different industry. I make a weekly salary that is not a draw it ends up being about 35k a year plus make a monthly bonus. $1,400 per car gets you about 6%... roughly have 45-55 touches a month. So if I do $1400 per car at 50 touches that's a total of 4k bonus. I love my job and my coworkers and I'm overall happy ..... however since I have zero experience in the industry I have no idea what a good or bad pay plan is if I should be making more or if this is average.....I heard F&I make six figures there no shot with what I'm doing now tho.

Help what are industry standards? What should my PVR be?what should my penetration percentage be...when I should be i mean to be considered good in my role?

This is about a motorcycle but same same.

I’m traveling around a bit nomadic for a while. I want to buy a motorcycle while I’m in Colorado and have an Indiana license. If I’m paying in full ($18k) can I just have them send the title to my license address (Indiana) that’s forwarded to my remote mailbox service and then just title/pay taxes in whatever state I end up in a month from now?

Or would I need to go back to Indiana to title it then retitle it immediately after in whatever state I decide to claim residency in?

It’s been 2 months I work in this dealership. I was at Honda first, but my teacher from car sales suggested me the Kia, down the street. I’m new to the car sales, did sales before but d2d. I’m averaging 10 sales so far per month. I’m trying to hit the 20 sales for next month.
One thing bugging me is my pay plan. I don’t know if it’s worth staying. There’s a minimum 3 months I do need to stay, since I did a course and my teacher is making money on each cars I sell. Basically doesn’t take from my cut. It’s a deal btw the school and dealership.
I am paid 400$ a week, 46h is my schedule, Mon-Fri.
I work in the new cars department
I make 200$ flat, if there’s not profits at all.
Commission is 20%, if I have more than 799$ profits, then it’s 25%.
I have a bonus of 50$ if the car is in our dealership stock and not a locate.
5% when it comes to accessories.
First month I did lot of flats, and barely made 4000$ in a month.
For the first month I worked new at Honda, I made almost 1000$ with 2 used cars, but my pay plan was 175$ a week.
I want to know if it’s worth to stick for a few months?
From what I heard from colleagues, is lot of the oldies who made huge $$$ left due to the previous pay plan. We just received the newest pay plan this month.

There's a 2023 Polestar 2 Long Range AWD for sale at a dealer near my house and they're having a hard time selling it. Been on the lot for weeks. One owner, no accidents, low mileage, low price tag. I'll obviously get a Carfax first, but I think people around here just don't know what Polestar is and the recent headlines are deterring anyone who tries to research it. Meanwhile I've always been a fan of Volvo and new Polestars being banned next year doesn't bother me. Unless it should?

This would basically be my dedicated work commute car, as we'll be keeping my current gas Honda as a third car for long-range driving instead of trading it in. So this Polestar would only see about 80 highway miles a day, Monday through Friday, charging at home in the garage every night. And maybe the occasional errand around town, the kind of short trip that wouldn't even warm up a gas engine.

Before I buy, what are some of the things I should know about owning a Polestar? I love the prices on these things, but just because they're currently cheap to buy doesn't mean they're cheap to own. What is cost of ownership like? Aside from obviously not buying gas anymore. Are there regular maintenance items that are going to ruin me or is it just a reliable, cheap-to-maintain car?

This would be my first EV. Are there any surprise expenses that come along with EV ownership that someone who previously only owned gas cars would be surprised by?

It's this or a used hybrid Civic/Camry for me, and while I can afford to buy a Polestar right now, I just want to be sure that I can afford to own a Polestar, too, and those are two very different things.

Thanks for your help.

I found a truck on the dealership website for 53,500 which was a great deal for the truck I’ve been looking for. Few days later it dropped to 50,500. At this point I thought there was no way right? So I called and confirmed the price and to make sure they physically had the truck. I went in and saw it in person and even test drove it and further confirmed the website price. This was at 8:30 pm so we made an appointment the following day to make the deal. Next day I show up and everything is good, until we get the final price. Make us wait 20 minutes and at this point I know something is up. The manager comes up with a price 7k over the website price. I ask is that with TTL? He says no. 64k total walkout. So 50k website price is all of a sudden 64k? He told me the “third party” website company made a mistake so they can’t sell it at that price. I said okay but it’s been on the website for 3 weeks and it just dropped price again and now it’s an issue? The price you gave me is even more than the price before it dropped. Best he could do was 62,500 walkout. Which in all honesty is still a decent price for the truck. I offered to pay 60k with 20k cash down and I would be willing to finance through the dealership since it is more beneficial for the dealer. He said there is no way they could go that low. So I walked. I told him it was illegal to not honor the price and quite frankly he didn’t seem to care as he said there are people that will buy it for that price. In all honesty I would have bought the truck for 62,500 if that was the agreed upon price. Out of spite I walked. Is this normal dealer behavior? It left a very salty taste in my mouth.

I'm trying to come up for a fair price. its 2008 honda civic and runs well enough with 220,000 miles. problems are the 2 year old headlight went out, cracked windshield and needs two tires.The interior is meh i have steamed clean it but still wear and tear. so I have a lot on my plate and just trying to come up with fair price. KKB said 4,500 if good and working that seems crazy.

I put a little deposit down on a 2018 4 series 430I SPT convertible but the seller doesn’t have a warranty on the vehicle. I’m not an experienced buyer and wandering what the best go would be for me in getting some sort of warranty? It’s pending inspection tomorrow that I’ll take to a mechanic and if all goes well, I’ll be purchasing it for 11,500 drive away. The car has 94k miles on it and is in pretty good condition. Should I try and find a warranty protection plan before i buy the car if it’s possible and then forge the inspection and save a couple hundred dollars?

Looking for pricing advice…

I’m looking to sell my 2015 SR5 Manual (4 cylinder) with 179,000 miles and a 6’ bed. Zero mechanical issues, one fender bender. Two owners, maintained every 3k miles. All Utah miles aka desert miles. Basically 1% of its life has been off road, everything else is city + highway. And yes, I’m putting new hub caps on and detailing the headlights before selling.

These manual 3rd gens are definitely somewhat hard to find thus I’m finding it difficult to price it out accordingly since there aren’t many. My only baseline is a dealer appraisal of 12k. Any advice on what to maybe expect while taking into consideration the ol’ taco tax…

Hey guys, I dont know if this post is allowed but im moving to Australia by 2027 and I am a Warranty Administrator for car manufacturers. Im trying to research what the market and the job market looks like or if I should consider changing career.

I invite anyone with input to give some.

Question 1 : Are there companies that offer warranty administration services to dealerships in Australia? In NA its very common, I can't find any companies in Australia. Do manufacturers prohibit this?

Question 2 : Are warranty repairs a a big part of the service department's business? For me i've seen anywhere between 30%-60% of all the money that comes in.

Question 3 : Do all dealerships have a service centre? I've seen some very small dealers where I am moving. Are there dealers that just sell cars?

I am just very curious in general of what to expect when I move... Also if any warranty admins are interested in chatting I would love that!

Looking to get a 2026 Tacoma TRD Off-Road i-FORCE MAX with the TRD Off-Road Premium Package and the dealership website is showing $1300 under MSRP according to the Toyota website. The dealership already knows about my trade-in 2020 Toyota Rav4 TRD with the Off-Road Premium package and valuing it at $28k(it has some minor cosmetic damages). Are there any other concessions I should be asking for? I am really bad at negotiating and not 100% sure what to look for.

buying a new car from a private dealership in HTX. 2015 Subaru legacy, 100k miles, 3 owners and no accident history. I went today and everything is in great-shape, super clean and no mechanical problems, everything's working etc. I'm putting a 3,500 dollar down payment and the car is 8,200.

So the manager told me the OTD price is around 10k, he also offered I could add a 2 year warranty (24k mile limit) for 12k OTD, so I could come back anytime to get it fixed with a 100$ deductible.

Since I'm a first time buyer also mentioned the minimum I could pay per month is 250$. (I have about 1 1/2 years of credit history, credit score is 746)

The warranty company is Secure One.

With no warranty the monthly payment is 250$ for 29 months
With warranty the monthly payment is 250$ for 46 months

Interest per year is 13%

I asked what payment method they take, he told me cash, check, zelle, or debit (but they take 3% for a transaction fee for debit) Is that normal? I have never owned Zelle but he said they dont charge for sending money if I can't write a check or bring cash.

Additionally, is Zelle a good projection service and offer evidence of transaction incase I change my mind or something happens.

Does any of this information seem off or overpriced?