" Lemon " Laws !

It seems strange that if you buy a faulty toaster, microwave or television you are protected by consumer protection laws.  You simply return it to the place of purchase and you have the right to exercise any of the three " R's  " that are enshrined in legislation - Repair - Replace - or Refund, the choice of which is up to the customer.   Yet these laws do not apply to motor vehicles, usually the biggest priced item any family purchases after the family home is taken into consideration.

What are called "Lemon Laws "apply in several other countries and pressure is building to have them apply in Australia.  The incidence of cars leaving the factory with major faults is very low but it can be devastating to any owner who has the bad luck to be on the receiving end of the trail of misery they cause.  It seems that the only way to get relief is to take the matter to the media and if it generates enough bad publicity the car manufacturer will eventually cave in.

Now our legislators are considering specific "Lemon Laws " to clarify the situation and we need hard and fast rules to apply.  Fixing minor faults under warranty is normal procedure with any new car and this should not be misconstrued as requiring a refund or replacement.   At the moment there are fifty-three million motorists somewhere in the world driving cars with faulty driver side air bags because a fault has developed in the product an independent manufacturer has supplied to a growing list of car makers.  All of these will be replaced at no cost to the car owner, irrespective of the age of the vehicle and whether the warranty has expired.

Just like winning a "bad luck lottery ",  occasionally an otherwise reliable make and model vehicle production line spits out a car with some sort of fault that beats the best efforts of the dealer network to fix.   It is constantly back in the workshop for repair and  logs a growing amount of time that it is not in the hands of the owner to do his or her bidding.  Putting a cap on that problem would seem a logical way of legislating when a "Lemon Law " would come into force.

It has been suggested that a "three strikes " situation apply.  If the vehicle has been returned three times for repair of the same fault and it remains unfixed then the owner is entitled to hand it back and receive a refund - or accept replacement.   Running in tandem with that ruling would be a time factor limitation, stipulating that should the vehicle be unavailable to it's owner for twenty or more days because of such repair work - the refund or replacement option would apply.

That sounds a very reasonable solution, but it would only apply to new cars.  The car handed back under Lemon Laws would become the property of the car manufacturer and it would probably be offered for sale - hopefully fixed - as a second hand vehicle, but this legislation would be wise to add a disclosure clause.  There should be a requirement that such vehicle history be clearly disclosed to any sale offer of such a vehicle - so any buyer is well aware of what he or she is getting.  Used cars are a "mystery buy " when it comes to mechanical condition.

Some years ago a house in which multiple murders occurred was sold to a family without this past history being disclosed.   They were superstitious and  could not bring themselves to live in a house with such a past, resulting in a law that required the Real Estate industry to fully disclose such past histories - without which the buyer could legally cancel the sale without cost.  A similar disclosure should apply to the resale of "Lemons " !

There is no reason why motor vehicles should be shielded from consumer protection laws that apply to other items of merchandise.  In the distant past, stringent warranties applied, in most cases a mere twelve months or twelve thousand miles.   Today some vehicles carry a seven year unlimited kilometre warranty - and yet there is no clear rule of measure of what applies when events go beyond a reasonable problem fix.

It is time that car warranty replacements were brought into the standard that applies to consumer protection in this twenty-first century  !