Excited about his new purchase, our Los Angeles lemon law client drove his 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee everywhere. Within three short months, he began experiencing problems with the vehicle’s air conditioning system. In particular, the air conditioning stopped blowing cold air, a nightmare situation for anyone who lives in California. After presenting the vehicle for repair, the dealership flashed the air conditioning control module in accordance with a technical service bulletin. Technical service bulletins are documents published by manufacturers that provide instructions and procedures for repair of known defects. They can be particularly useful in prosecuting California Lemon Law claims such as this one.
As time progressed, our Los Angeles Lemon Law client continued to have problems with the air conditioning. To make matters worse, he also began experiencing problems with the vehicle’s engine. At first, the check engine light came on without any noticeable drivability problems. As time went on, the check engine light issues persisted and the problem became worse. Specifically, the vehicle began going into a “limp mode” whereby it could only be driven at exceptionally low speeds. This dangerous condition could be fatal in that the driver is unable to properly accelerate. Our Los Angeles Lemon Law client began experiencing this problem regularly.
Upon hiring Journey Law Group, Inc., our firm conducted an extensive analysis into the vehicle’s service history and attempted repairs. We discovered that the Jeep dealerships applied multiple technical service bulletins in trying to repair the vehicle to no avail. We also discovered that in trying to repair the vehicle, the dealership contacted the manufacturer for technical assistance on multiple occasions. Notably, the same diagnostic trouble code continued to recur even after each repair attempt by the dealership. It became clear that the manufacturer’s ongoing repair attempts were not successful and it really did not have a fix for the problem experienced by our Los Angeles Lemon Law client. In fact, the manufacturer confirmed that defect was never repaired as the vehicle remained in “limp mode” during its litigation inspection.
After months of battling through the court system, our aggressive strategy led the manufacturer to repurchase our client’s vehicle and pay an additional civil penalty in accordance with the California Lemon Law.
