Lemon Law for California

Build Dates : October 01, 2001 - September 30, 2004

NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID Number : 04V538000

Date Owner’s Notified: 20041223
Date Received by ODI: 20041109
Date Added to Databse: 20041110

Manufacturer’s Involved: ASTON MARTIN
Manufacturer’s Responsible for the Recall: ASTON MARTIN
Manufacturer Campaign Number: SAR 009

Component: VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL:ACCELERATOR PEDAL
Potential Number Of Units Affected : 1558

Summary:

On certain passenger vehicles, the throttle pedal assembly can become displaced from its housing.

Consequence:

A driver could experience loss of throttle control, increasing the risk of a crash.

Remedy:

Dealers will inspect and replace, if necessary, the throttle pedals. The recall began on December 23, 2004.

General Motors is widely believed to be filing for bankruptcy by June 1. At midweek no could even guess about the bankruptcy and its stock rose significantly, but by the end of the week the company drew another $4 billion from the government and the bankruptcy filing seems all but certain. On the lemon law front, we are now informed that settlement checks will take 4-6 weeks to process (not 1 week as previously done) and that all repurchases are being stopped.

This bankruptcy may be worse for consumers than Chrysler. First, Chrysler is smaller than GM, and so many more people will be affected. Second, Chrysler,  at the outset of its bankruptcy, made a mistake by failing to honor pre-bankruptcy settlements in lemon law and warranty cases. This isn’t deplorable from the bankruptcy perspective- after all all kinds of people are being hurt — but from the PR perspective it creates a problem. How do you expect that car buyers trust your warranty promises if you won’t honor lemon law settlements? But it took them a week to announce that checks will be reissued (which hasn’t yet been done), and so the uncertainty created a problem.

Chrysler tried to seemingly having its purchaser assume existing warranties and, at the same time, staking out a legal position that all existing lemon law and warranty claims would be ‘unsecured’ (read ‘unlucky’) in bankruptcy. Ultimately this inconsistency cost them time and bad press.