GM Told to Pay $32,500 for Selling ‘Lemon’ Truck

When Mark Lautherboren bought a new Chevrolet pickup from a Westminster dealership in 1988, he said he thought he was buying the truck of his dreams.

But what he got was a lemon.

As soon as he got it home, Lautherboren said, he noticed paint blisters and bubbles, scratches, pockmarks, runs and drips, along with fire damage in the engine compartment and torn and deformed seats and door panels.

After a four-year legal battle, Lautherboren, 31, emerged triumphant when an Orange County Superior Court judge this month ordered General Motors Corp. to pay him more than $32,500 for selling him a defective truck.

The company was also fined an additional $10,000 for willful violation of the Song-Beverly Act, commonly referred to as “The Lemon Law.”

“It was my dream truck,” Lautherboren said. “I had wanted it all my life and saved $10,000 for a down payment. Since it was my first brand-new vehicle, I wanted it to look new, not like someone had had a bad day on the assembly line.”

Lautherboren said Tuesday that he was misled. “I thought I was buying something real nice. But it just became one headache after another.”

Lautherboren, a native of Garden Grove, said the 1988 Chevrolet Crew Cab “Doolie” pickup truck he bought for $21,300 from Royal Chevrolet spent 117 of the first 129 days of ownership in the shop for repairs.

Lautherboren said most of the repairs he requested were never done, and the rest were botched. By March, 1989, with the exception of one 12-day period, the truck remained at the dealership.

“I would stop by the dealership and look at it and ask why the work wasn’t being done,” he said. “The last straw came when they called me and tried to get me to remove the truck from the dealership, even though the work wasn’t done. They said if I didn’t, they were going to charge me a storage fee.”

In March, 1989, Lautherboren took the truck home and filed his lawsuit.

Lautherboren, who was laid off from his job at Rockwell International in Anaheim just two weeks ago, said he is relieved to have the legal battle behind him.

He said he hopes that his experience will inspire others to stand up for their rights.

“The biggest thing is, when you are most frustrated, just take a deep breath and hang on because there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “Don’t ever give up.”

Attorneys for General Motors could not be reached for comment Tuesday.