Lemon Law Attorney

New car buyers will be entitled to a full refund or a replacement instead of enduring repeated repair jobs.

The rights could also be extended to cover used cars and could eventually cover other big-ticket purchases.

Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson said the lemon law would limit the number of repairs before the vehicle was replaced or refunded.

New car warranties were inadequate in some cases, Mr Robinson said.

“Under most of these warranties, manufacturers are only required to repair defects during the warranty period.

“There is no express obligation to replace or refund a defective vehicle.”

The extent of the lemon problem in Victoria is not clear, but Consumer Affairs Victoria last year received 517 inquiries about defective new cars or warranty repairs.

Mr Robinson will release a paper on the proposed laws and invite submissions.

The exact terms of the laws will be decided after the consultations, and the proposal will then go before Parliament.

The paper details the frustrating process many unlucky car buyers endure if they end up with a lemon.

“It is not clear to the consumer who is ultimately responsible for dealing with their complaint,” the paper says.

“The consumer is quite often referred back and forth between the dealer and the manufacturer.”

The paper has examined several laws in the US.

Laws vary from state to state, but they typically apply only to personal or family cars.

Depending on the state, there is a limit of three or four repairs before a car is declared a lemon, except for serious safety defects, for which the limit is one or two.

A car can also be declared a lemon if it is out of service for a total of 20 to 30 days.

The faults must appear in the car’s first one or two years, or during its first 19,300km or 38,600km, depending on the state.

Laws also prevent the sale of lemons without disclosing their history to the purchaser.

New York State’s lemon law applies to used cars, an idea to be considered in Victoria.

Mordialloc Labor MP Janice Munt will run the consultation process and will present her findings to Mr Robinson before laws are drawn up.

Former premier Steve Bracks promised lemon laws for cars and other goods in the 2006 election campaign.

CASE ONE:

IN 2002, a consumer bought a new vehicle for $30,000. After 43 months of persistent problems and 28 repair attempts, the manufacturer and dealer finally agreed to replace the consumer’s vehicle with a brand new model for $9500 and trade-in of the defective vehicle.

CASE TWO:

A MANUFACTURER publicly confirmed a manufacturing fault had resulted in 5500 engines being replaced in the consumer’s particular model of vehicle. The consumer’s original engine was replaced under warranty. When the replacement engine also failed, the consumer had to pay $4300 to have it replaced because it was outside the vehicle’s warranty period.