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Because I was forced to return my first TT to Audi persuant to the Lemon Law, I receive a lot of questions on this topic. Here is some info from a previous post that may be of interest. I've updated it slightly, to account for recent changes in the law.

Hopefully, very few of you will ever have to go through this, but if you do, it's helpful to have some understanding of your rights.

Lemon Law documentation (damn long)...
Posted by Brad Willis

As some of you know, I previously owned a TT which was returned to Audi pursuant to to the CA Lemon Law. So what if your TT becomes a lemon? What steps should you take to ensure that you are protected?

Laws vary from state to state, so it is important for you to comprehend your home state's specific rules. I think that most of these laws are pretty similar, so I will focus on my home state, California's Lemon Law. Following the rules will ensure that you are protected. Failure to follow the rules, may ensure that the manufacturer can tell you to go and pound sand, and you may be left with limited recourse.

The Lemon Law uses a presumption as a guideline for determining whether a "reasonable" number of repair attempts have been made. In order for the buyer or lessee to use the Lemon Law presumption, all of the following must be true:

1. The manufacturer or its agents have made four or more attempts to repair the same problem, or the vehicle has been out of service for more than 30 days (not necessarily all at the same time) while being repaired for any number of problems.

2. The four repair attempts or 30 days out of service have occurred within 18 months of the vehicle's delivery to the consumer or 18,000 miles on the odometer, whichever occurs first.

Effective January 1, 2001, however, this statute has been expanded so that the legal presumption is also established when a defect that results in a condition likely to cause death or serious bodily injury has been repaired two or more times, and the consumer has directly notified the manufacturer of the defect.

3. The problems are covered by the warranty, substantially reduce the vehicle's use, value or safety to the consumer, and are not caused by abuse of the vehicle.

4. If required by the warranty materials or by the owner's manual, the consumer has directly notified the manufacturer about the problem(s).

So what do you need to do to make sure that you are protected? First off, when serious problems occur, get your car in to the dealer's service department <I>&lt;B&gt;ASAP</I>&lt;/B&gt;. If you ultimately do need to invoke the Lemon Law, the manufacturer is entitled to a mileage offset (aka depreciation) which uses a formula that reduces what they must pay you, by the number of miles that you have driven at the point where the problem first occurred.

Keep in mind that the preceeding is necessary to establish the <I>&lt;B&gt;presumption</I>&lt;/B&gt; that your car is a lemon. However, a lemon law case may be very viable even if your car does not meet this criteria. Under these circumstances, the burden of proof will shift to you to make your case that the vehicle is indeed a lemon.

A hypothetical DUI arrest might make for a helpful analogy. If the arrestee's blood alcohol level was .08% or higher, it is presumed that the suspect was intoxicated, and the burden is on that suspect to show otherwise. That's not to say that one couldn't be arrested for DUI with a b/a level of .06% or even lower. It's just that the presumption of intoxication no longer exists, and the burden of proof now shifts to the prosecution.

So even if you bought or leased a vehicle which does not completely meet the presumption that the vehicle is a lemon, the vehicle may still legally be a "lemon," and thus entitle you to protection under the lemon law.

I first reported my transmission problems at 5,500 miles, so I must take a hit for those miles, which in my case amounted to a mileage offset of around $1,600 or so. If I had waited until let's say 10,000 miles before reporting it, I would have had to absorb another $1,600 or so.

Make sure that these incidents are fully documented. Insist that the service invoice specifically states what your problem(s) are, and what was done to repair them. If the service invoice doesn't show this, insist on one which does. This is the evidence that you will use if you ultimately decide to pursue a Lemon Law action. Be sure to keep all of your records.

Also, get a seperate invoice for each visit. Sometimes, they will leave things "open" and this may diminish your case. If you have to bring in your car 4 times for a problem and the repair records don't reflect that, you might have a hard time proving it.

Most states require that the problem needs to occur a specific number of times within a specific number of months. This doesn't mean that you couldn't prevail otherwise, but satisfying these requirements will stack the deck in your favor. In CA the problem should occur and be taken in for repair 4 times within 12 months or 18,000 miles. Obviously, I made very sure that my car satisfied these requirements.

Finally, at sometime during that period, you must specifically request the manufacturer's assistance. Be certain that it states this on at least one of your invoices. If it isn't there, it didn't happen, so insist that they type in "customer requests maufacturer's assistance".

Many states have an arbitration process that is binding upon the manufacturer, but not upon the purchaser. The arbitrator can order a refund, or even a similar replacement car. Of course, if you go that route, be well-prepared with all supporting documents in your possession.

I was in a position where I could not lose. Audi would unquestionably have lost any arbitration or legal action, and they may have had to pay me even more than what I settled on. I didn't have the time to deal with this, and getting an early line on a TT Roadster at MSRP helped me to make the decision to accept Audi's buyback offer.

Sorry about the length of this, but hopefully the information contained here will help to protect any of you who may be so unfortunate as to purchase a lemon.