After car breaks down,
Iraq vet wages new battle -- with dealer
(cont'd)

Irons told me this week this is especially problematic among the junior enlisted members, who "may be purchasing their first car and just aren't familiar enough with how the transaction (works)."

What makes the military issue so potentially explosive is its timing.

On her Web site, Rosemary Shahan of the nonprofit Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety - which strongly backs renewed efforts this year to pass a car buyer's bill of rights - has a prominent link on her home page titled: "Dealers Scam Our Troops."

"If we don't help the military avoid these scams now, I don't know when we do it," she said.

Battle lines are being drawn over the reprisal of the so-called bill of rights, which is returning this year as a ballot initiative that would, among other things, allow used-car buyers to return a vehicle within three days.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill last year (without the cooling-off period) by Assemblywoman Cindy Montañez, D-San Fernando. Montañez is back with the measure and, supported by consumer advocates, has reinstated the cooling-off window in AB 68. A competing bill, SB 637, by Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, is backed by car dealers.

As for the military, Brian Maas of the California Motor Car Dealers Association doesn't believe servicemen and servicewomen are being targeted.

"We're talking millions and millions of transactions. No doubt just doing a statistical analysis, there's going to be some member of the military who is dissatisfied with their purchase," said Maas, whose group opposes Montañez's bill and especially the initiative, which he calls a "sharp stick in the eye to car dealers."

"But we have seen no evidence that there's any kind of trend here."

Jonathan Palmer begs to disagree, saying he knows a lot of service members with similar troubles. But for now, he is focused on his own.

"I've had to deal with so much crap with this car," he said.

"Honestly, I want to sue them for a lot of different things. This has made my life extremely hard."

 

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