Ford isn’t my first choice when it comes to American vehicles, but every now and then I like to see what’s available.

This seems to happen abit too much but I’ll see late model Ford/Lincolns that are lemon buy-backs for sale at Ford dealerships. This guy on YouTube brought a lemon Lincoln and said his local Ford dealer even had a selection of lemons. The issue was never fixed and came back shortly after. Seems like a complete factory defect and should’ve been parted out.

That being said I rarely stumble across GM/FCA, Japanese, or European brands selling lemons on their franchised lots. Not saying they don’t build lemons too, you just don’t see them being resold at dealers.

Does Ford have a policy that allows dealers to do this? Or do they just build more lemons than others? Or do others just crush/scrap their lemons? It
can’t just be me seeing all of these buy backs for sale on dealer lots.

When I worked for GM since I was Master Certified I would get buy backs before and after courts. If it was repaired and customer still didn't want then GM would buy back. After buy back engineer and I would repair if simple if not went back to GM to be repaired then auctioned off. Never heard of them crushing a car. Dealer who worked on vehicle that was bought back got billed for all repairs and car sold. Manufacturers never loses. Toyota was same way.

I've watched a few YouTube videos in which "lemons" re-sold by Ford were just vehicles, often purchased brand new by elderly people, that literally were too complex or difficult for them to use (ie: with all the computerized stuff, very strong brakes and 300hp + engines in the newest full-sized sedans). Resulting in (warranty) service visits because they felt that the car, and not the driver, was malfunctioning. Or they were equipped with the 'start-stop' technology, and the user couldn't accept that there would be a bit of hesitation when re-starting. Or turbos for which there is a noticeable kick when boost comes alive.

In some states, after a certain number of warranty "repair" visits, a vehicle is legally classified as a lemon and must be repurchased by the dealer. Dealers of course being reluctant to push back against (elderly) customers that encounter "issues" that are unresolvable and are not related to any mechanical or systems defect whatsoever.

I find it hard to believe that there be any manufacturing defect in a brand new car that can't be economically repaired that would warrant scrapping during the warranty period rather than repair. The sort of gross abuse required to make such uneconomic compared to a new vehicle probably would be grounds for warranty or lemon law exclusion.

Plenty of GM/FCA, Japanese, or European brands being sold here: https://www.automotiveavenuesnj.com/

Yeah, the fact that you even know the Fords are lemon buy-backs shows that at least Ford identifies them as such to the dealers who buy them and put them out for sale. Ford's neighbors aren't as good about that notification as Ford is, according to what I've read.

States have differing laws about this. Some (like California) require the vehicle to be labeled or branded permanently with at least the fact that they're lemon buy-backs. Other states (most, as I recall?) have no such requirement.

I've seen people on YouTube but them and fix for personal use. One was Lincoln SUV bought cheap. When it broke down a few times, the guy took it to a dealer that figured out that it was a bad piece of wire. Now his wife drives it.

My 07 335 is a lemon law car from CA. It was the first year of the HPFP, and they weren't great. They've improved a lot - my car is up to 212k with at least 100k on the current pump. Just drove it to Detroit and back, don't really worry about it.

Funny, friend just headed from Detroit to MN.....



Have a cousin who bought a lemon labeled Jeep.....been flawless since they bought it.....

I have been looking on the internet at C-7 Z-06 Corvettes and I see quite a few lemons of them for sale. They call them GM Lemon buybacks and it is clearly
stated on CARFAX. Some have been resold as a lemon buyback and resold again as a lemon law buyback. Evidently the warranty must remain in effect for
the next consumer even though it is a buyback. I actually called on one and the dealership sent me a detailed repair report of the problem on a certain Z-06. The only thing that they had to fix was something with the brakes. I didn't buy the car and am kind of afraid to spend so much money when I can buy a non lemon law Corvette for about $5,000.00 more. When you sell the car you are still going to take a big loss due to the branded title and unless you are going to run it to the ground you will discount the price for the next buyer. I also had a co-worker with a 2014 Ford F-150 that was a buyback. He ended up going to court against a Ford dealership and lost. The problem is he didn't get much money for the truck and they never could repair it properly. For some reason the battery would go dead just sitting overnight. The problem was it wouldn't go dead all the time and it could be 3 or 4 months before the problem would re-appear. I hope the second owner was able to figure it out.

In 1987 Ford ended up buying a lemon back from me. Several months later I got a call from someone who was buying it from another L.I. dealer, he tracked me down via the vin #. He was a police officer. Anyway I warned him, and he insisted how great the van was and how nicely the interior was customized. I was flattered he liked my work. LOL. As the saying goes you can lead a horse to water but. He bought the van, bad move!!!! IIRC Ford claims to fix them and send them to auction, however back in that day, they didn't disclose this, at least in the case of my van. I wouldn't touch one with a 10' pole. They had their best people try to fix mine, and couldn't. I seriously doubt it was fixed when this guy bought it.

You don't really think they would scrap a one year old $30,000 or $40,000 car, do you? It's not like a badly wrecked car that can't ever be made safe to drive again. The manufacturer repairs the car and often extends the factory warranty. I've bought many lemon law buybacks years ago when they were good deals, but these days when I try to buy, they only seem to bring a few hundred less, if anything less, than a clean history car.

I LEMON vehicle describes a vehicle that has a problem that the dealer could not fix in three trys. I doesn't mean that the car is a junker at all, but to save the customer more problems the car is taken back. When the problem is identified and fixed, it can be resold as used with a new car warranty. Ed

ALL of the manufacturers resell their lemon law buybacks. In Texas, they come with a "branded" title and the selling dealer MUST disclose it in writing.

Subaru does it all the time. And the people that buy new Subarus are morons that complain about everything, including buying a manual and realizing they can't drive a manual, so Subaru, in their effort retain customer loyalty, will buy back the car under the lemon law, when there is really nothing wrong with the car.

One of the things you should consider...is the dealership the vehicle was unsuccessfully repaired at multiple times could very well have incompetent technicians doing the work.

There's a Ford dealership about an hour south of where I live that specializes in buy-back vehicles. They get these vehicles from dealerships all over the country. Their techs are some of the best in the business as they find flaws other dealers miss when they fail to correct the issues that were responsible for the buy back.