Texas Lemon Law Blog

Ever wonder what happens to life after death? Of course, I will not be analyzing such a complex issue, but in a similar line of thought,… have you ever wondered what happens to lemon cars that have been repurchased or bought back from car manufacturers? Or, ever wonder what happens to wrecked or salvaged cars?

Last week, fellow Lemon Law attorney and blogger, Jonathan Rudnick, wrote a short article that might have partially answered this hypothetical question. His article focuses on how there exists an entire market for buying and selling damaged cars.

This makes sense, because it is impractical and unprofitable for car manufacturers to simply dismantle and take lemon cars out of commission when it is so much easier to possibly sell it to another uninformed buyer who is in the market of buying a preown car. The Texas Lemon Law covers used car cases in very LIMITED situations. As a general rule, the law is intended to protect new car buyers.

In the United States, a car that has been labeled a “lemon” has significant problems. Often times, the car manufacturer has been unable to fix the vehicle after numerous repair attempts. Usually, each state has its own lemon laws (such as the Texas Lemon Law). In Canada, however there is currently no similar law that protects the selling of “lemons.”

Since there is not a law in Canada that prohibits the selling of “lemons,” Canadian consumers may be unaware that they are purchasing a defective car. It has been reported that more than 130 lemons have been sold to Canadian consumers. The act of exporting lemon cars from one geographic location to another is also better known as lemon laundering. Here, manufacturers are exporting lemons from the United States and reselling it to Canadian residents without properly disclosing the lemons status of the vehicle.

The Manitoba government (Manitoba is a province in Canada) previously had no plans on adding, changing, or amending any legislation that would address this issue. Now, it has reconsidered the issue and an amendment may be tabled as early as next spring.

What do you do when your brand new vehicle is already out of commission and you purchased the vehicle new in Georgia? If this scenario sounds familiar to you, then the Georgia Lemon Law might be helpful in your case.

In Georgia, anyone who has purchased, registered, or leased a new vehicle gains protection against recurring defects. A new vehicle is covered under this law for the first 12 months after the day the car was delivered or the first 12,000 miles of use.

If a problem keeps occurring even after numerous attempts to repair it, the car buyer may apply for an arbitration hearing in order to decide if the buyer is entitled to a refund or replacement vehicle.