Sweet Victories!!
New California Auto Safety -- Lemon Law
Millions of California car buyers will enjoy important new consumer protection against unsafe cars under a major law slated to take effect January 1, 2001. The law is widely expected to set the pace for other states with weaker protections against defective autos, one reason auto interests tried to stop it.
Key provisions:
• No longer will motorists have to risk their lives repeatedly in vehicles with life-threatening safety defects. The new law will cut in half -- from 4 to 2 -- the number of repair attempts for defects that are likely to kill or cause serious bodily injury, before consumers have the benefit of the doubt they are entitled to a refund.
• The new law also ends decades of discrimination against hard-working self-employed people and small business owners, finally granting them the same protection as other car owners. The new law will expand the lemon law to include small businesses that register up to 5 vehicles, each weighing up to 10,000 pounds.
• If manufacturers provide an address in the owner's manual that is "clearly and conspicuously" disclosed to the lemon owner, that is where you should send your letter of complaint. CARS strongly recommends that you play it safe, and send your letter by certified mail, so you will have proof it was received.
Senator Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto), Assembly Majority Leader Kevin Shelley, and Assemblymember Susan Davis authored the legislation. Governor Gray Davis signed the bill into law. They all deserve our thanks for standing up to powerful special interests to make California's highways safer for everyone. CARS initiated the law, and led efforts to support its successful passage.
This victory is especially sweet because the auto manufacturers fought us tooth and nail. The bill was on life-support several times. It took around-the-clock work to turn up the heat and shed the media spotlight on the problems. At crucial moments, the Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee published editorials in strong support of the bill, reviving its chances.
Special thanks to all you wonderful CARS members who wrote letters, made phone calls, and sent e-mails. Your voices were heard -- and were crucial for winning this important victory. Passage was a cliff-hanger. We needed 41 votes in the Assembly to keep the bill alive, and it got -- 41 votes. General Motors and Nissan were especially aggressive in their attempts to kill the new law, but in the end, consumers won.
Outlawing Secrecy about Auto Defects
Unsafe vehicles can lead to tragic crashes when auto manufacturers and dealers are allowed to "gag" their customers. The veil of secrecy endangers the public, and thwarts efforts by safety officials and law enforcement agencies to protect families from unsafe products.
Many Ford-Firestone tragedies could have been avoided, if only the families had known the tires had a history of failures, and the Fords were known to roll over, killing or maiming their riders. However, Ford and Firestone insisted on secrecy, as a condition of settling lawsuits. This allowed them to conceal defects from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, safety groups, reporters, and the public for years, while the toll mounted.
California resoundingly passed landmark legislation that outlaws secrecy agreements when used vehicles are repurchased. The new law, authored by Assembly Majority Leader Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco) and signed by Governor Davis, will take effect January 1, 2001. It expands on an earlier first-in-the-nation law, also initiated by CARS, that outlaws gags in new car lemon buyback cases. The new law states that such agreements, which interfere with the public's right to know, are null and void.
Shelley was recently recognized by the Consumer Federation of California as this yearıs legislative "Most Valuable Player" for consumers.
New Laws Will Improve Pedestrian Safety and Increase Competition in Auto Repairs
CARS also played a key role in winning new laws to improve pedestrian safety and increase competition in auto repairs, projected to save consumers over $17 Billion in the next 10 years.
Child Booster Seats
CARS joined with other health and safety organizations to support a measure, authored by Senator Jackie Speier, that will improve child passenger protection for children. Governor Davis signed the new law, which expands existing requirements for child restraints, to include booster seats for children until they reach age 6 or weigh 60 pounds. As documented by Partners for Child Passenger Safety, children under the age of 6 who do not use booster seats are 3 and one half times more likely to sustain a serious injury than those who use booster seats, and 4 times more likely to suffer a significant head injury in a crash.