Despite massive publicity about an obvious—and potentially life-threatening—vehicle defect, it seems that some dealers will still try to wrangle out of taking care of it for consumers. Such occurrences highlight the continuing need for California Lemon Law.

According to a recent news story published on the web site of television station CBS 5 in San Francisco, Patrick Luong is still waiting for his Toyota dealer to assist him with his 2008 Toyota Tundra, in which he’s had 2 life-threatening incidents. The first time, Luong was driving on the Interstate with his 15-year-old nephew in the passenger seat, when the vehicle began accelerating and decelerating, all on its own accord. He managed to get the truck into neutral and steer it over to the side of the freeway, where both occupants jumped out of the vehicle to safety.

The dealership found nothing wrong with the truck, and explained to Luong that the problem was the floor mat, which was then removed.

Several months later, it happened again. This time, the truck sped up to 60 miles an hour in a residential neighborhood. The truck wound up in a ditch. Once again, the dealer told him there was nothing wrong. This time, however, Luong left the vehicle with the dealer—where, when the news story aired just a short while ago, it still sat after 3 weeks, while Luong waited for a response from Toyota.

“It’s surprising, with the volume of publicity surrounding this particular known defect, that Toyota has not responded to this individual,” said Norman Taylor, leading California lemon law attorney. “They’re following their usual routine of doing everything they can to avoid addressing a vehicle defect. Unfortunately, it’s a very common occurrence.”

Taylor has seen and heard many stories of lemons being “deflected” by dealers and manufacturers. He has been a California lemon law specialist since 1987, and he and his firm, Norman Taylor and Associates, have handled over 8,000 cases for consumers with a 98 percent success rate.

“Dealers and manufacturers don’t want to deal with lemons, and use deception, delay and occasionally fraud to put off a consumer,” Taylor explained. “The sad part is they don’t think it is unjust. They think it is business, and good business at that. If you are the owner of a lemon vehicle, you have probably been given a runaround that makes getting permits from your local bureaucracy seem like taking a vacation to Disneyland.”

Because of such practices, it is highly recommended to any consumer that thinks he or she may be driving a lemon to contact a qualified lemon law attorney right away.