Mileage Offset or Usage Fee is a Term Used in Lemon Laws As the name suggests, it is an amount offset from the total damages when calculating how much a consumer is entitled to under the law. Mileage offset refers to the process of deducting the number of miles that a consumer has driven on a defective vehicle prior to first experiencing the defect. The number of miles the vehicle had when it was first brought to a dealership for repairs for the defect will become the mileage used to determine the mileage offset amount. The mileage offset was created to allow manufacturers to deduct the number...

The Importance of Promptly Reporting Defects at the Dealership to Reduce the Mileage Offset It is important to go to the dealership sooner rather than later and report a defect immediately because delaying to take a vehicle in for repairs will only add to the mileage offset used in calculating the total amount the manufacturer has to pay back to a consumer. The larger the mileage offset, the smaller the amount of damages recovered. Here are a few tips you can use to avoid an unnecessarily large mileage offset. First, the sooner a defect is reported, the less number of miles the consumer has...

The Role of a Skilled Attorney in Maximizing Compensation and Minimizing Deductions in Damages for Defective Vehicles A good lemon law lawyer can reduce the mileage offset and increase your damages through various negotiation and legal strategies. First, an attorney may be able to negotiate with the manufacturer or dealership to reduce the mileage offset. By providing evidence of the defect through documented repair orders, the timeline of the defects and the timing of the repair attempts can be established. This may show that the defects came with the vehicle and allows an attorney to argue...