Dean Vincent thought buying a new truck would smooth his return to the open road. An owner-operator for seven years before helping to run a trucking firm, he was excited about getting back into the driver’s seat. His wife urged him to buy a used truck and save some money, but, no, he insisted, new was definitely the way to go. “I told her my experience is that with a new truck you can go through the first year with virtually no maintenance costs,” recalls Vincent, who lives in Osoyoos, B.C. “You just go up and down the road, build up lots of miles, and make some money.”

The words would come back to haunt him every time he was stranded somewhere with a truck that wouldn’t start or couldn’t get into gear. “I bought a new truck, expecting it to be hassle-free for the first year, and I had just the opposite,” he says. “In the first year, I had eight pages of warranty claims.”

As the downtime piled up and the expenses mounted, it looked more and more like he’d bought a $140,000 paperweight. His litany of problems encompassed the engine, transmission, and electrical system. Even the paint job was faulty, with large chips falling off the side of the cab. Despite repeated trips to the dealership, the problems resurfaced, and new ones to boot: the coolant system, the fuel system, wiring.

“It was a constant headache. It just went on and on,” he says.

Finally, Vincent started talking directly to the manufacturer of the truck. A few angry letters and heated phone calls later, he started to see some action. “Eventually everything was fixed under warranty but, all told, I missed about $40,000 in revenue loads, which equates to about $17,000 or $18,000 net, after costs,” he says. “The troubles with the truck took away all the security I had planned to build up in that first year. Now, I’m basically starting over from scratch, except with less money in the bank than I had when I started.”

Despite better quality control at factories, once in a while a “lemon” rolls off the line… and it’s a guaranteed nightmare for the unlucky soul who buys it. Manufacturers are loath to admit they occasionally squeeze out a lemon. When asked for their perspective on lemons, Volvo Trucks North America sent a prepared statement: “Typically the ‘lemon’ perception is resultant of a problem that goes misdiagnosed, or mistreated. The aforementioned notwithstanding, occasionally a truck, as any machine, will experience a system or component failure.” Hardly committal, it was one of the more definitive statements we received from a truck maker.

One reason is because a legal definition for the term is so elusive. Unlike the United States, Canada has no “lemon laws” to protect vehicle owners and resolve disputes between vehicle manufacturers and owners. Most state laws cover only passenger cars and light trucks, but some, like those in Texas, cover heavy-duty trucks. The state defines a lemon as “a vehicle that has a defect or non-conformity, normally covered by the express warranty, which the manufacturer or dealer is unable to repair within a reasonable number of repair opportunities, and which substantially impairs the use or market value of the vehicle or creates a serious safety hazard.”

In Canada, light-vehicle owners can turn to the Canadian Motor Vehicle Arbitration Plan (CAMVAP), which mediates disputes between the vehicle owner and the manufacturer. CAMVAP doesn’t cover heavy-duty vehicles, but the group’s general manager, Steve Moody, says the consumer-protection principles he advocates to car owners apply equally well to truck owners.

Moody says if you follow the right steps, you can transform a lemon into a peach.

1. Check the Spec. Sometimes the source of trouble can be traced to how the equipment is being used (or abused, more to the point). It’s the responsibility of the truck owner to ensure the vehicle they buy will serve the purpose they want. “When something breaks on a truck, it could very well be that the customer has overloaded the vehicle,” says Tony Bliss, regional service manager for Sterling and Western Star. A highway-spec tractor that pops a driveline in a quarry is hardly “lemon” material.

Vincent says the first sign his truck wasn’t operating right was abnormally high fuel consumption. Despite pulling relatively light loads, his truck was getting only 4.75 mpg to just over 5 mpg. When he spec’d the truck, the sales rep said it ought to achieve high 5s or low 6s. (Now that it has been repaired, the truck is getting 6.5 mpg.) He also noted smoke problems and fluid loss. Because of Vincent’s careful eye, the technicians back at the dealership were able to fix those problems.

2. Work the System. Most truck manufacturers have a chain of command that starts at the dealership level and works up to various company service managers, engineers, and support staff. A phone call to head office at the first sign of trouble will be answered with the phone number of your nearest dealer because most complaints can be resolved by the dealer’s service department.

Carol Roberts of the Winthrop, Maine-based International Association of Lemon Law Administrators (IALLA) says the dealer is a critical starting point because often arbitration to resolve “lemon” issues can’t begin until there have been a prescribed number of visits to the dealership. Those visits lead to what is called “presumption” and it must precede any legal action. “Go back to the dealer first,” she advises. “Explain the problem clearly and make sure they note the specific problem on the work order.”

And so begins the paper trail which will be critical to a happy outcome.

3. Lay the Paper Trail: David Brunke, director of consumer affairs at the motor vehicles division of the Texas Dept. of Transportation says sloppy records can sour a productive relationship with the vehicle manufacturer.

“You want to give proper notice and opportunity,” he says. “Make the vehicle reasonably available, make sure you keep the repair orders when you take it in, and get everything documented thoroughly,” including who made what commitments, at what time of day, along with all the relevant details. Follow up with a written note confirming the agreement.

All the documents can be forwarded to the manufacturer-by registered or certified post-so the company will be fully apprised of your case. This, then, becomes their final notice to repair the problem before you take stronger action.

4. Raise Your Voice: It doesn’t hurt, at this point, to let others know about your plight. Dean Vincent, for example, wrote to the Better Business Bureau, provincial ministries of consumer affairs, various trucking magazines, and consumer advocates. “I’m not really the kind of guy who complains all the time,” Vincent says, “but this is my livelihood. I had to have action.”

Then there was the guy who showed up at the MidAmerica Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky.-the industry’s largest equipment exhibition-a few years ago with the word “LEMON” emblazoned on his truck, to embarrass not only executives of his truck’s manufacturer, but to deliver a message to thousands of other truckers.

Gabriel Schenhar, senior auto test engineer for Consumer Reports magazine, says those kind of actions work. “We encourage people who are sending letters to a dealer or manufacturer to carbon-copy as many people as they can,” he says. “If manufacturers see that a letter has been sent to the Better Business Bureau, they may be prompted to give a better response to the consumer.”

“Don’t give up,” Vincent suggests. “The corporations forget who the customer is. They go into ‘cover-your-ass’ mode. They forget who’s buying the trucks and giving them their job.” In his case, it took two letters to the manufacturer-one fairly civil, the second more harsh-before he felt noticed. “Even when they started to address my concerns, it was a fight for every little thing. I had to turn into a total jerk, and I’m not that kind of guy.”

5. Be Reasonable: At the end of the day, don’t expect a free truck and a sympathy cheque from the manufacturer. In Vincent’s case, he estimates a net loss of $18,000. Besides fixing the truck, the company paid some of his out-of-pocket expenses to mitigate the damage.

Although losses resulting from downtime aren’t covered by vehicle warranties, all of the manufactures contacted for this story said they’re aware of the importance of keeping the truck on the road. Dealers and equipment manufacturers know very well that, ultimately, productivity is what keeps the customer happy.

“There are very few problems that are not fixable,” says Bliss. “We work with the customer and with the dealer to minimize the down-time.” He admits, however, that in some cases the resolution takes longer than everyone would like.

Veterans like Dean Vincent expect their vehicles to occasionally break down at the worst possible time. It’s the unexplainable snafus and the prolonged effort it takes to get them fixed that can leave a sour taste, one that lingers long past the day they’ve gone out to buy their next truck.