Michigan Court Thinks About It For Awhile, Concludes 'No'.
In what will surely go down in history as one of the most Galaxy Brain court rulings of all time, a Michigan appeals court determined that a tire rotation does not, in fact, include tightening the lug nuts.
I know you may find this difficult to believe, but for the past 100 years the auto repair industry had been doing it wrong. The work order should expressly have a line item for tightening lug nut. Not every shop tightens them and many customers prefer to drive home and do it themselves.
I can see tire shops advertising in the future. Tire rotation $5, tighten lug nut only $30 extra.
What a bunch of idiots in the courts.
If a tire shop has done anything with my tires, I drive home and untighten them. Seriously. If the Hulk tightened the nuts I may need the impact driver to loosen and retighten them to a proper torque, proper torque being defined as something I can hope to loose on the roadside with my breaker bar and socket.
And that surprises you how?????? Shakespear had it right. Just think how muich more same politics would be if we first got rid of all the lawyers - - - -
Oddly, a few searches failed to turn up the actual court case, just the Jalopnik article.
Personally, I'd refrain from drawing any conclusions from a random website article.
One line item for each lug nut.
Cindy Hamilton
The Discount Tire store where I usually buy my tires does free rotaions. They have a big window where you can sit on stools and watch them. The use what look like torque tubes on the impact wrenches, then finish up with a hand held touque wrench.
This is what we call fake news. If you read the story, that issue was not about whether tightening lug nuts is included with a tire rotation. The issue was whether a specific state law that apparently regulates fraudulent repair practices that deliberately defraud customers:
'In a typical legal maneuver, Anaya’s attorney invoked the Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Act (MVSRA), a 1974 law that protects car owners against “unfair and deceptive practices” by mechanics in addition to the charge of negligence. "
There was no evidence of unfair or deceptive practices, it was negligence. And the plaintiff won and was awarded damages for the negligence of not tightening the lug nuts. What the shyster lawyers tried to pull was to apply a law that's apparently targeted at people promising a free oil change and then you find out it only includes one quart of oil or similar. If they had prevailed on that, then the award would have included paying the plaintiff's legal costs. The court got it right, they were awarded damages only. And most importantly, the court never said anything about tightening lug nuts not being a part of a tire rotation. To buy the shyster lawyers argument, you'd have to believe the dealer was scamming them and didn't tighten the lug nuts deliberately.
Maybe you should read the actual article first? It doesn't at all support the stupid claim being made.
You have all you need in the article. The plaintiffs won and were awarded damages for the negligence of not tightening the lug nuts. The shyster lawyers tried to make the stupid claim that a state consumer protection law that apparently targets fraud and misleading practices should apply. If it did, then they would have also been awarded legal fees. The court got it right, not tightening the lug nuts was not a business practice, it was not intended to mislead or defraud, it was negligence.
Yeah, but would the typical person? The typical woman tire customer? No. This court ruling is a pathetic joke.
I can understand that law and have to agree that what the lawyer claimed does not apply.
However there needs to be some law about lawyers over charging. From what I recall about the case, it was about $ 40,000 to the person for damages, but over $ 50,000 for the lawyer.
In this case it looks like the person was out about $ 10,000 plus his origional $ 40,000.
That should have been an open and shut case. Maybe a one day trial at the most. Maybe $ 2000 or so for the lawyer at the most.
Just about anytime you have to get a lawyer involved it is only the lawyer that comes out ahead.
I avoid some shops for this reason and we prefer to go to our Subaru dealer. His prices are on par and I know I can trust his work.
Did you read the article? The decision has absolutely nothing to do with tightening the lug nuts not being part of a tire rotation. The claim is BS, pure BS.
Now you're sounding like a lib. They aren't loads of other lawyers around to choose from?
Please, you go do a case like that for $2K. If the plaintiff didn't want to pay for a lawyer, they could have gone to small claims, where the amount is capped from a couple thousand to maybe 10K, depending on state. If anything, I would say that all states should have cases of at least $10K able to be processed in small claims.
And how much of the legal was spent on pursuing the obviously bogus part and appeal? The plaintiff presumably had a right to say, no, that makes no sense, I'm not paying for that BS.
That's certainly true is some percentage of the cases.
Many tire shops locally have a notice at the door requesting you return after 50 km of driving to have the torque on the wheel nuts re-checked. A case of CYA. - and a good idea.(either have them retorque, or you retorque) NOT using a torque wrench to torque wheel nuts at my shop was a "firing offence"
Several years ago I watched a worker tighten the nuts on my car with an air wrench. He then went around and used a torque wrench. I asked him how many turned. ??? Turned ??? Yah, how many were over-torqued? He just looked at me kind of funny... ;>)
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