By David Doege, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Mar. 31--Waukesha -- In what is believed to be the largest damages award concerning a defective car in the history of the state's lemon law, a judge has ordered DaimlerChrysler Corp. to pay two business partners and their attorneys more than $385,000.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Mark Gempeler ordered the payment in closing out a lawsuit over an oft-troubled $80,000 Dodge Viper that has been parked for two years.

The award illustrates how high the stakes can be in Wisconsin for carmakers, because if they lose such lawsuits, they have to pay the owner double damages, attorney fees, court costs and interest.

"This may be the biggest award ever in America," said attorney Vince Megna, who represented the business partner who owed the Viper. "In researching this, I found nothing bigger over the past 20 years, and until it's paid, it's earning $126.90 in interest each day."

The lawsuit was filed in 2004 James Mortle of Muskego and Joe Kiriaki of Franklin over a muscle car they bought because of its performance prowess. The two bought a black 2003 Viper on July 12, 2003, from a dealer in Illinois.

On Aug. 1, 2003, according to court records, 71 miles after the 500-mile break-in period, the differential broke for the first time. It was repaired, but just 13 days later, with the odometer reading 686 miles, the differential broke again, court records say.

Over the next six months, the differential broke four more times, each time while being shifted from first to second gear at around 50 mph.

When the Viper was running like it was designed to, Mortle reached 122 mph in a quarter mile on a drag strip, he said. But after the differential broke for the sixth time, the manufacturer refused to cover any more repairs, records show.

Mortle asked for a replacement Viper under the state's lemon law, according to the lawsuit, but the manufacturer refused, contending that he and Kiriaki abused the car.

Megna filed the lemon law suit against DaimlerChrysler Corp. in June 2004 in Waukesha County Circuit Court. A jury sided with Mortle and Kiriaki after a trial in January.

The award ordered Gempeler last week included payments of $161,013 in damages to Mortle and Kiriaki, $26,632 in interest as of March 23, $175,610 in attorney fees and $22,721 in court costs. William Croke, the attorney for DaimlerChrysler Corp., could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Copyright 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

 

A friend of mine's father had a lemon Viper as well... same exact reason.

 

heh.


that sucks. a lot.

 

Aside from learning about the bad dif in Vipers, I didn’t know Wisconsin was so serious about the lemon law...

Since they bought it in IL, I wonder how location plays into it? I'm guessing there's at lease 1 Viper dealer in WI.

 

when shifting to 2nd at 50mph? :-).

Then again, it is Viper. I guess the judge ruled that you should expect to be able to do anything with sports car like Viper.

 

I don't think it plays an important part. The car might have been purchased in IL but it is titled in WI so WI law would apply to it.


I thought MD was strict but damn, WI puts it to shame.

This would never happen in GA....

 

Those problems don't surprise me at all. It seems that every time I read a car magazine where they road tested or compared a Viper - it would always break down or have problems. Of course those guys pound on those cars. I'm referring to the original generation Viper, not the new one.

 

I don't know if it's the Viper or the Z06, but "mathematically" one of these cars (or both) can hit 60 mph with the first gear alone -- that's why they have such low 0-60 time. Talk about what crazy torque can do with tall gear.

 

Any surprise it's the lawyers always that got the biggest piece of the pie in the end?

This is a good wake-up call to manufacturers to ensure the reliability of their cars.

 

ESPECIALLY Daimler-Chrysler... good lord their cars are awful on the quality lists

 

While differentials can break during the gear changes, I have seen them more often at my track break during burnouts our pulling up to the staging lines a little too fast in an attempt to get crowd reaction.

Most of the faster cars we have (and the more modern ones) only go from 1st to 2nd any by then they are at the finish line (while my RX is in 3rd at the line).

Regarding the legality, it appears to me the majority of the incidents occurred in Wisconsin.

What I am wondering is if this guy was shifting right, holding the RPMs out as long as possible and not jerking it like so many of us did when we first started on stickshifts.

 

Good for the car owners. 6 differentials is RIDICULOUS.