...over my CA lemon law and federal mag-moss warranty breach law suit.

A little background for those who don't know:

I have a 2003 Evo. I've suffered from the infamous p0300 misfire condition since early 2004. 6 visits to 2 different dealerships, a reflash, $500 in warranty-denied service work and multiple useless calls to MMNA customer service later, I opened a lemon law suit against MMNA for this issue.

At the time of diagnosis, I had a Buschur 3" turboback, HKS RS intake, grounding kit, HKS TT, denso 1-step-colder plugs, Forge MS d/v, and I'm running redline MT90 and 75W90.

Of course they blamed the mods (first my turboback, then my d/v), so after two visits I had the car back to stock, less about $500 in service charges since they "couldn't" warranty the work.

Stock, they reflashed me twice, with the ver1 ECU reflash from Mitsu. As I drove off the lot the thing misfired again. Awesome. Tech line was stumped; they blamed my mods causing an irreversible problem and sent me on my merry way, warranty gone.



Fast forward a few months and I've got a lawyer and a seemingly-great case against them for this. I go through days of depositions with Mitsu's lawyer, as does the dealership with my lawyer. The case is 'stayed' (put on hold) pending a decision on another case:

http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...&doc_id=281439


The reason we had to wait on this case was that I purchased the car in NY, not CA. There is nothing written in the law that requires the car be purchased here to qualify for the lemon law here. So we waited, for about 9 months.

This case was for an older couple who purchased an RV and the engine went. 8 times repaired it still wasn't operating properly, so they sued Cummins via the lemon law... the catch is that they purchased that RV in Idaho.

This case was finally decided upon a few days ago, and the CA Supreme Court ruled that the law as they see it applies to automobiles purchased within the state of CA, and nothing outside of it.

So this effectively nullified my CA lemon law suit, since I bought the car in NY. I _could_ try to persue this in NY, but I'd have to go through the arbitration process first. We're looking at 3mo-2yrs turn around time there, with no guarantee of any results.

I felt I had a very strong case as did my lawyer, and while we're both bummed about this decision, he/I decided a settlement at this point would be the best option. I won't discuss numbers but it's a small settlement, and my poor lawyer was working on a contingency basis.

We would still have had a federal case (mag-moss act violation) and while that would have been an excellent legal precedent to persue, it was just not a good decision for someone like me who doesn't have endless pockets.

I'm feeling rather bittersweet about the whole thing. On one hand, I am out of warranty, so I am free to mod the hell out of this car as much as I please. That will include an AEM EMS or comparable p0300-misfire-eliminating ECU replacement, after I get the ver2 ECU reflash from Mitsubishi to see if that solves the problem. So I will have a very fast car very shortly... however I am really pissed that I wasn't able to go at it with them over this problem. It's affected a LOT of evo owners out there and I only know of 1 other person who may be persuing this avenue of rectification.

So there you have it. Keeping the car, got a few bucks, wasted a LOT of time and $$$ selling mods and buying stock parts for no reason. All in all a ****ty experience, but worth it for the experience. You'll be seeing me more across the forums here now that I'm 'back'.

 

Which is why we didn't pursue anything either... Though I wish the respective "owner" of my car would've at least taken it to small claims, but we gave up... and being that he paid for the 8000 dollar engine replacement he's out 8 grand that could've gone into his precious S2000.... Welcome to Mitsubishi, please bend over.

 

Can you link me to your story? I may have seen it but I can't remember the details.

Sorry yours didn't turn out well either.

 

Congrats, in a way... I guess.

 

The one thing I'm happy for is that I don't have to stress over it any longer... it is what it is.

 

It's time to boycott

 

If everybody fought that hard I believe Evo owners as a group would be much better off. I appreciate what you went through, thank you.

 

That really sucks!!!

 

+1..we all appreciate all that you went through, thank you.

 

Hey guys, thanks. I appreciate that you can appreciate it. =) One of my reasons for being here...

 

Let the modding begin! Let's see if you can get revenge on the SRT4 and hopefully keep up with my car.

 

+1 here too

 

This is off topic but.....if you install a Creader it will take care of the misfire.

Good luck!

 

Good luck on building the car. It's a shame that we spend so much money on these cars and when they ligitimately break, we have to go through so much BS to get them fixed by Mitsubishi. Luckily I have found a shop that will honor my warranty with the mods on my car.

 

Thanks for the effort, spending money to do this and providing the feedback. Since I and others here have brought our cars in Ca this provides a path for us to get our issues resolved, if we are willing to fight.


Thanks again for the information

m~