Home | Cars And Trucks | Warranties

Does Car Warranty Law Protect Both Buyers And Sellers?

At first when you examine the car warranty law you might feel a little overwhelmed. However, there are some basics that apply from state to state in the United States in regards to the regulations for car warranty law.

Heavy black smoke coming out of the exhaust system of your car may mean that you might want to have someone look at it. If your car is older or purchased used you may need to look at getting a new emissions control system. If you don't know what that is, talk to a mechanic. If you don't have a warranty for the car you will have to pay the garage to install it. If you don't do anything about it you may be fined and ordered by the court to fix the problem anyway, plus pay court costs and the fine.

On new cars, the car manufacture warranty is required by federal regulations for every state to repair or replace the emission control components of a car. This ensures that this part of the vehicle is always operating properly. In California, the car manufacturer is also required to cover the smog controls for the car and provide a smog control certification for each new vehicle.

The part of the new car warranty law that require car manufacturers to provide certification sounds responsible on the surface. However the certification is backed up by their own in-house testing which really only talks about quality control of important components. This must give some buyers some sense of security, but it sounds more like someone in Washington had to get a group of consumer advocates off their back.

What's really interesting about the quality control test, which is needed to certify a car, is that the manufacturer performs it on his own cars in order to give himself his own certification. However, is not clearly defined whether or not this certification gives the buyers some recourse of action if they experience problems with the car. This part of the new car warranty law doesn't name any specific parts, how rigorously they should be tested, or exactly what the manufacturer is looking for when he tests important components. But, as long as the paper is issued, the car is certified.

A person who is selling a used can give the buyer any type of verbal guarantee about repairs, but before the money changes hands all seller has to do is take a bottle of white shoe polish, paint "As Is" on the windshield and tell the buyer although it is now an "As Is" deal, he'll still help with repairs. Of course the seller takes the money and later on doesn't do a thing to help the buyer. Believe it or not, the car warranty law recognizes that even though the buyer was obviously sold a lemon, the shoe polish sign on the car supersedes any other agreements made before the sale of the car and will hold the buyer responsible for all repairs.

Most car buyer's don't go to used car lots and believe the sales person when they say, "That's just the battery. I'll have it fixed as soon as you get back with that cashier's check!" They may not be familiar with the car warranty law that protects used car dealers from having to make repairs to the buyer's car unless they are written in the car warranty area of the purchase contract. If the buyer wants to purchase a car that seems okay except for the muffler, they will want the muffler replaced under the warranty. The sales person might write "replace muffler" in the right place on the contract but if the muffler isn't working three months later and you take the car back to the dealer, he may just look at you and say, "I did what you asked, but all I had was an old rebuilt muffler. There's nothing I can do now." Unfortunately, he's right because he fulfilled his written contract. What the buyer should have done differently at the signing of the contract was be more specific. Here's something more like what should have been written on the contract under warranty. "Replace muffler with brand new name-brand muffler within 24 hours of contract signing." You can't be protected the car warranty law unless you understand it.

The first thing a car dealer does when he gets a trade-in for credit towards the purchase of a new car is to have his mechanic look at it. The dealer wants to get rid of the car as fast as possible and has his mechanic fix the cosmetic problems but not the real ones that will probably have the car breaking down completely in two months. If the dealer goes ahead and knowing leaves out this information when he is selling the car he is breaking the car warranty law. This has to do with the fact that if you know the car is headed for the scrap heap and sell the car anyway, the buyer has the right to sue. As well if, the dealer hands out a warranty that doesn't have anything to do with what he knows is wrong with the car he is selling in the first place, he can be sued for that as well, because the seller has represented the car as having warranty that really doesn't cover anything. Read more car warranty tips and advice at http://www.carwarrantypolicies.com

Many cars that are declared salvage vehicles are in fact still drivable. The term salvage vehicle mainly comes from the insurance companies because it is cheaper for them to write off the blue book value than make repairs that would cost more than the car is worth. Let's say a buyer wants to buy a Porsche, but they don't even have enough money to buy a used one. They can go to an auction where the insurance companies drop off their cars "As Is." Here's where the car warranty law comes into play. Because according to the laws concerning salvage cars, even if the buyer finds a salvage Porsche they could afford, they still can't go anywhere to get the car fixed, including the Porsche dealership, because most places offer warranties on labor and parts and by law salvage cars can't have any warranties placed on them.

Where do those rental cars go when the new models come out at the beginning of the year? In America, they go to the rental car company's used car lot. If you pick up a brochure or go online you can usually find where they are located. This is an interesting situation, because when you go to the lot the cars have been taken such good care of by the company's detailer and mechanics you would swear they had never been driven. Until you look at the odometer. The sales rep will tell you it was only driven by tourists who did a lot of sightseeing so the mileage is highway mileage and not hard on the car. Of course, under the car warranty law, the sales person can sell you a really limited warranty. But all the data of what goes wrong first on each model has got to be on some report at the corporate offices where they draft the warranties and you can bet that none of these things are covered.

Article Source: http://www.ezarticles.info

Obtain a good deal on your car warranty by doing your research reading car warranty comparisons and shop around at car warranty companies

Custom Search

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Warranties Articles Via RSS!