F250 Recalls: How Taking Advantage of Lemon Law can help
From an advertising perspective, the competition between American truck makers typically subsists on semantics, with Ford having the edge due its memorable motto, “Ford tough”. But if you bought a Ford F250 partly on the strength of its motto, you may be disappointed to know that, in 2008, Ford recalled thousands of F250’s due to a potential fire hazard posed by the truck’s gas tank impacting a frame element upon frontal impact. The recall affects F250’s with the following characteristics: single rear wheel drive featuring 4-wheel drive, a wheelbase of 156-inches, and a two-piece drive shaft.
The F250 recalls are based on the “potential” of certain F250’s to experience engine fires following collisions—a fact that leads many consumers to keep driving recalled vehicles under a “that will never happen to me” philosophy. Yet, even though F250 recalls could fulfill their useful lifespan without suffering an engine fire, not pursuing compensation for a vehicle that exhibits a serious safety defect doesn’t make sense, especially given the generous compensation available under state and federal lemon laws for vehicles that have undergone a series of unsuccessful repair attempts. In other words, instead of having your F250 fixed by Ford, you may be able to pursue greater compensation by contacting a lemon law attorney.
Under state lemon law, consumers can receive either a free replacement vehicle or a refund of a lemon vehicle’s purchase price minus a mileage based allowance. Under the federal lemon law, consumers can receive a cash award which lets them keep the vehicle or trade it in or have it repaired by an independent garage. Most state lemon laws and the federal lemon law allow consumers to recover attorney fees, as well as costs associated with owning a lemon vehicle, such as licensing and registration fees, rental car fees and towing expenses.
