Trying to salvage protection
for car buyers

"No one knows how many of the million or so wrecked vehicles that are rebuilt and resold every year wind up in the hands of unsuspecting used car buyers like Gregory Hill of San Mateo, whose dream car turned out to be a rolling time bomb.

But consumer advocates fear the number is substantial, which is why they are nervously monitoring an ongoing Congressional tussle over the best way to protect the public from the sometimes unscrupulous types who peddle such vehicles.

The one considered most likely to pass is the National Salvage Motor Vehicle Consumer Protection Act from Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., which is backed by auto dealers and insurance firms·Consumer advocates and a number of state attorneys general – who narrowly defeated a similar Lott bill last year – claim the measure would be of little help to salvage-car buyers.

They particularly dislike provisions in Lott's bill that would prevent victims from suing dealers unless the suit was filed by a state attorney general. If a state did file such a suit, they say, damages would be limited to $2,000 – even for repeat offenders.

'It's appalling,' is how Rosemary Shahan, president of the Sacramento-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, summed up Lott's bill. 'Here in California, we would lose a lot of consumer protection.'"

– San Jose Mercury News, July 26, 1999