Wirtz Law Blog

If you own a defective vehicle, time is measured in repair visits, rental cars, and months of payments on a car that spends more days at the dealership than in your driveway.

If you are the manufacturer, time is measured in revenue. And the numbers are staggering.

We analyzed the most recent full-year financial reports from 18 major automotive manufacturers, converted each figure to U.S. dollars, and divided by the 31,556,926 seconds in a year. The results are in the graphic below.

The Numbers Behind the Graphic

Volkswagen Group, the parent of Audi, Porsche, Bentley, and Lamborghini, generated $364.2 billion in its most recent fiscal year. That works out to $11,541 every single second, around the clock, every day of the year.

Toyota earned $335.7 billion, or $10,637 per second. Ford came in at $5,934 per second. General Motors earned $5,863. Stellantis, the company behind Jeep, Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler, earned $5,503.

Even the smallest company on the list moves money at a pace no household can comprehend. Subaru, ranked 18th, still earns $1,004 every second.

What This Means for Your Lemon Law Claim

The average new vehicle in America now sells for roughly $48,000. Here is how long it takes each of the top manufacturers to earn that amount in gross revenue.

Volkswagen earns it in about 4 seconds. Toyota takes 4.5 seconds. Ford and GM each need about 8 seconds. Tesla needs 16 seconds. Subaru, the slowest earner on the entire chart, covers it in 48 seconds.

Read that again. The money at stake in your lemon law buyback represents seconds of revenue to the company on the other side of the table.

Yet consumers routinely wait months for manufacturers to honor their obligations under California’s Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act. Claims get routed through layers of customer care representatives. Repurchase requests sit in review queues. Settlement offers arrive low, arrive late, or fail to arrive at all.

The delay is a strategy. Every consumer who gives up, accepts a lowball offer, or trades in a defective vehicle out of frustration saves the manufacturer money. The math above shows exactly how little that money means to them and how much the delay costs you.

Talk to a California Lemon Law Attorney

If your vehicle has been in for repeated repairs under warranty, you may be entitled to a full repurchase, a replacement vehicle, or cash compensation, with the manufacturer paying your attorney fees. Wirtz Law represents California consumers against every manufacturer on this chart.

The manufacturers measure time in seconds. You should not have to measure your claim in months. Contact us for a free case evaluation.

Methodology: Revenue figures reflect each parent company’s most recent completed fiscal year as reported in official annual reports and earnings releases, either calendar year 2025 or the fiscal year ending March 2026 for Japanese and Indian companies. Foreign currency figures were converted at period-average exchange rates. Per-second figures divide annual gross revenue by 31,556,926 seconds. Stellantis figures replace the former Fiat Chrysler following the 2021 merger with PSA Group. The Tata Motors figure reflects the post-demerger passenger vehicle company, which includes Jaguar Land Rover. The Geely figure reflects Geely Automobile Holdings; Volvo Cars reports separately.