Tesla hit by first lemon claim from "king of the lemon laws"

Despite its status as a Wall Street darling and the celebrity of its CEO, Tesla Motors is still a toddler by auto industry standards, building as many cars in a year as some automakers do in a few days. Today brought another first for Tesla that's old hat for the rest of the industry — the first customer suing the company for selling him a lemon. And like all things Tesla, it's not business as usual.

The suit was filed by Vince Megna, the Milwaukee attorney and "king of the lemon laws," whom frequent readers may recall for his $618,000 verdict against Mercedes-Benz, an all-time record. Megna made his name winning hundreds of such suits against automakers under state laws that require companies to buy back vehicles if they're out of service with mechanical problems for 30 days or more.

Not known for his shyness, Megna recorded this video above of the filing, referencing the sentiments of actor George Clooney, who returned his Tesla Roadster. The filing itself says one Robert Montgomery bought his Model S Performance model in March 2013 for $94,770, and over the next several months had myriad problems with the car — from dashboard failures to power door handles that wouldn't open to simply not turning on. In total, Megna says the car was out of service for 66 days — and because Tesla relies on its own service centers rather than dealers, it often had to be towed to Chicago for repairs.

About that non-dealer business: Tesla has been adamant that selling directly to customers makes for a better experience, and many Tesla owners have praised the company for its service. But the Tesla sales contract also places some strong limits on what an upset customer can do, requiring binding arbitration, stating that California law applies to the transaction and forbidding class-action lawsuits. Megna contends Tesla failed to reply to three requests from the owner to replace his car under Wisconsin lemon laws, and that state law does not allow the restrictions Tesla puts in its sales agreements.

Tesla did not immediately have a comment on the suit. While it may be the first lemon law suit against Tesla, other owners have reported the occasional rash of repairs; the long-term tester bought by Edmunds.com has had its drive unit replaced twice and the battery once. All of Edmunds' repairs happened under warranty at Tesla's expense, as was the case for most buyers, and many Tesla enthusiasts are willing to put up with a higher number of bugs in exchange for driving a hot vehicle like the Model S. But Megna's suit shows not every buyer will be so tolerant of Tesla's growing pains.