The newly proposed Missouri Lemon Law will increase its restrictions by disallowing consumers to go after car wholesalers in court. With the new law, consumers can only pursue car dealerships and possibly the car manufacturers. The law is intended to reverse the recent Missouri Supreme Court decision that found in favor of consumers by allowing victims who are sold lemon cars to go after both the car dealer and its wholesalers. The law has not passed yet and will go to the governor of Missouri for signage.

For more information, go here.

I wrote to Dave offering assistance and here is his response, "I appreciate your concern, but I have conceded defeat in this matter. As the 'little guy', I cannot compete with Ford Motor Company under the law. My belief that I was 'doing the right thing' by giving them the chance to repair the vehicle, 'bit' me, as FMC is unconcerned with 'doing the right thing."

If you have a Texas lemon vehicle, please make sure that you document everything. Regardless of whether you go with my law firm or my competitor, it is important that you do something to make sure that Ford or other manufacturers such as Chrysler or Mazda does not win for selling you a lemon.

The bill was sponsored by Republican Jay Wasson and harshly opposed by Kansas City representative John Burnett, who is a Democrat. The lemon law bill is called HB1970 and has been sent to the Senate. There is currently no calendar date for it and the proposed effective date for it is 08/28/2008.

I personally would oppose this bill because it is written too narrow. There are many situations where it is important for the consumer to have the right to sue other parties besides the car dealers in lemon law related claims, especially in resale situations.

I urge folks who reside in Missouri to please write to your state representative and voice your opposition to this bill. For more information about the bill, go here and here.

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.

I challenge car manufacturers such as Ford, Chrysler, and Mazda to re-consider their practices of lemon laundering and think about how unethical it is to pass along their problems to consumers. If there has been a lemon law buyback on a car with airbag or seat belt defects, does it make sense to put it back into the market used car market?

Lemon car recycling is bad.

One fan of the New York Yankees is suing the team after evidence of steroid use by several of their players came to light in the Mitchell report on drugs in sports. Specifically, Matthew Mitchell, a long time fan, is seeking $221 in repayment for tickets he purchased claiming that the behavior of the team is akin to consumer fraud.

Similar to a typical Texas Lemon Law related case, Mr. Mitchell is seeking refund of his ticket price for five games in which pitcher Andy Pettitte was involved. Mr. Pettitte was named in the Mitchell report and has admitted to using human growth hormones, though he claimed that this was used to hasten healing after an injury – not to enhance on field performance.

Mr. Mitchell believed that he was buying tickets to baseball games during which his favorite players would be competing naturally – without chemical enhancement. He feels that this is the position that was put forth by the team, and that, given the widespread steroid use, this was a misrepresentation on the part of the team. The case was filed in small claims court in Brooklyn.

We will keep you posted as to the outcome. So far as we know, no such case has been put forward against our local Dallas team, the Texas Rangers.

Consumer fraud can take all forms and may be present in many different types of consumer transactions. If you believe that you have been the victim of consumer fraud with respect to your new car, we may be able to help you. For more information, visit our web site at www.texaslemon.com

This article was written by C. Fischer. Mr. Fischer is a consultant to my office.

Ms. Jones summarizes ConsumerAffair.com’s recent article on Saturn’s recent recall on faulty timing belts. For the purpose of protecting your Texas Lemon Law interests and rights, it is important that you insist that the dealership or service center provide you a repair invoice for the recall repair.

In this article from Consumeraffairs.com by Joe Benton, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has recalled a handful of Saturn cars and SUVs due to faulty timing belts. The NHTSA has reported that 20,514 Saturn vehicles are included in the recall.

Although dealers are willing to replace the timing chain free of charge, many consumers have already “fixed” the problem and can’t be compensated or helped by the Saturn dealers. One consumer, Terry, in Indiana, had to spend $1,200 to repair a broken time chain and the valves that bent. Because he had already “fixed” the “problem” (defect), he wasn’t able to take his car to the dealer to be properly corrected.

The North Carolina Consumers Council (NCCC) brought the timing chain failures to the attention of NHTSA after the consumers in the state complained that the timing failures led to a sudden loss of power in the Saturn. The NCCC reports that an improper oil flow in the timing chain lubricating mechanism, contributed to the failure.

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.

The article above is written by J. Jones. It summarizes CBC’s recent article on Manitoba’s lack of lemon laws for citizens of its province. Ms. Jones is a law clerk at my office.

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.

Comparatively, Texas Lemon Law has a longer deadline (statute of limitation) time period.

Specifically, Texas Lemon Law allows a consumer to participate in the lemon law administrative hearing if a case was filed within 24 months from the date of delivery or 24,000 miles. This is 12,000 extra miles/12 months extra that a car buyer in Texas has over a consumer in Georgia.

The above posting is K. Johnson's summary of TheWeekly.com's recent article on Georgia Lemon Law. Ms. Johnson is a law clerk at my law office.

This is not considered the first time that both companies have worked together. In early 2004, an auto part maker affiliated with Nissan began selling transmission parts to Chrysler. (Perhaps that is why I have been receiving so many calls from potential clients complaining about Chrysler transmission defects under the Texas Lemon Law at my Dallas based law office recently?...)

This partnership between Nissan and Chrysler is occuring after General Motors (GM) rejected an alliance offerd by Nissan 15 months ago and after 80% of Chrysler's share was bought by a private equity firm, Cerberus Capital Management LP.

Not all Nissans are made alike. That is because Nissan, a Japanese car manufacturer, have an assembly plant in Mexico. If a consumer were to purcahse a Nissan vehicle such as a Versa, then the chances are very high that the vehicle was a product born in Mexico and not Japan.