Use Value and Safety The Three Essentials of the Lemon Law
In the Lemon Law, the concept of substantial impairment to the use, value or safety of your vehicle is one of the basic tests that determine the validity of a case. Obviously the consumerās viewpoint of what is substantial and what the manufacturer considers substantial is very different. It is our business to ensure that when the consumerās car engine dies on the freeway during rush hour it isnāt treated the same as a broken cup holder. In this engine dying on the freeway example all three criteria are substantially impaired.
Thatās an easy one.
Itās bad enough that your new car, motor home or boat loses 10% of its value immediately after you drive it away from the dealership. I want to put a number on this so youāll really feel the pain. I know itās mean; sorry about that. If you paid $50,000 dollars for your car itās only worth $45,000 when you arrive home after you sign the contract. This being the case, anything that further impairs the value is going to get your attention big time.
Letās take a quick look at use. You buy a car to get from one place to another as efficiently as the roads and highways permit. The engine should have sufficient strength to get you up your driveway without stalling. All of the essential components of the vehicle must do what their supposed to do. All of the bells and whistles bell and whistle. You can look at the moon when its there to be seenā"if the moon roof doesnāt get stuck halfway. You can navigate around the world if the software doesnāt drop a digit and tell you youāre in Kansas with Dorothy and Toto instead of downtown Pasadenaā"where you really are. To put a point on it, a carās purpose is first to provide safe, reliable transportation. If you canāt use it to get from home to work and back it doesnāt qualify as useful.
How about value? This is easy, although the manufacturers usually have a different yardstick. Who knew? Youāve had your new truck for a month and notice bubble spots appearing beneath the paint. They donāt have to be huge open flakes. You can see them and so can your friends and relatives. Maybe they are polite and donāt ask you why you donāt wash the truck. The basic fact is that if you decided you wanted to sell your new truck and buy something else, youāre going to take a serious hit on value. You ask for the Blue Book price and a potential buyer says, āHuh? Dudeā¦what about these blotches in the paint?ā What are you going to say? If you take it back to the dealer to be repainted, you know there is no way it is going to be like new. Acme Paint & Body, the dealershipās body shop hasnāt the tools, paints or environment to duplicate the paint job it was supposed to have received at the factory. You donāt want it. Itās not what you thought you were buying. It is substantially reduced in value.
Now letās look at safety. It seems as though it should be fairly cut and dried. Itās not. Few things in the law are as simple as they should be. There ought to be an adrenaline test. For example, if your vehicle through a failure to do something it was designed to doā"like stop quickly in a straight lineā"puts you in a situation where your heart rate shoots up like a loan sharkās interest rate, that situation should be declared unsafe. Okay, thatās bit whimsical and the manufacturerās defense might argue that you shouldnāt have been looking at the pretty girl on the street corner. (For the guys, of course) However, if you are on the freeway and traffic suddenly begins to slow, and you hit the brakes and your foot goes to the floor, this is impaired safety. The same could be said of constant SRS (Safety Restraint System) problems. When the warning light comes on and the folks at the dealership tell you nothing is wrong and all they do is reset the computer, and you take it back for the same problem over and over, do you quit believing the warning? I donāt th
Use Value and Safety The Three Essentials of the Lemon Law
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