Originally Posted by wstar

If I were you I'd talk to a lawyer first and see what they can dig up on how the laws for this work in your jurisdiction. Lemon laws (and other things related to defective products and fraud) can vary by state, but you're likely to be borderline on whether there's any clear law that can protect you now, because it's been such a long time since the sale.

The 3K miles and 10 trips to the dealer in the first few months should have been the big red warning flag, and it would have been easy just about anywhere to reject the car under a local lemon law at that time, and it would have been prudent to have an independent mechanic check it out thoroughly at that time as well. But this late in the game, you may already be outside the time-window of certain automatic protections in your favor, and even if you opt for a plain civilian lawsuit against the dealership you may have a hard time proving that they actually did it (as opposed to their lawyer's possible alternate story: that the car had a few gremlins initially which the dealership worked through with you, and then you had a large wreck later, had it fixed in cash and off the records, and are trying to now blame and defraud *them*).

I certainly wouldn't call the dealership first. If they sold you a wrecked and repaired car as new, you already know they're shady. By going to them first you're just tipping your hand and giving them time to come up with stories, etc.