Lemon Law for California

Though the congressional hearings of Toyota are already over and Toyota is setting up a North American Quality Advisory Panel, the problem with accelerator pedals is still unsolved. It still affects the safety of drivers and pedestrians.

The well-known Edmunds.com, which is one of the best automotive sources, is planning to provide one million dollars to those, who research the matters with acceleration. The research doesn’t specifically focus on Toyota, as the same problem appeared with other vehicle producers. 20 years ago Audi was in the news headlines for unintended acceleration.

Edmunds.com is currently working on rules for this “crowd sourcing” project.

Meanwhile, the whole buzz on Toyota recalls has shown once again the relevance of the California lemon law, which is there to protect the buyers of defected cars. Dealers might use numerous tricks to assure the customers that the problem is fixed. But a lemon car might still be a lemon, unless you try to obtain your rights.

Make sure your car can be considered a lemon. And keep in mind that the California lemon law could work for you if the defect made your car accelerate and that Toyota abandoned any fixing.

And don’t hesitate to get consulting on your lemon car.

Toyota has announced that they will be recalling 2.3 million vehicles due to problems the cars have been having with the accelerators.  This recall comes after the 4.2 million car recall a few short months ago, making Toyota the title holder of the largest auto recall in U.S. history. The current issue follows the recall the car company had in late 2009 due to the accelerator pedals becoming jammed underneath the floor mat, in which it recalled its Avalon, Camry and Tundra models.  Thursday’s recall, however, is due to the problems with the actual gas pedal mechanism becoming jammed, with or without the floor mat.

Toyota is now in its second round of recalls in the case of the runaway cars. The Japanese car company believes the problem is due to condensation build up on the accelerator system that is directly related to applying pressure on the gas pedal. In the event that this problem occurs, Toyota has said that drivers need to push down on the break as firmly as possible and pull over or to shift to neutral to attempt to slow down. They announced that it would be wise to contact the nearest Toyota dealer immediately after and report the incident.

It is believed that the recall announcement late Thursday by Toyota was due to the pressure that the company felt after ABC News informed the company about a series of investigative reports they were getting ready to air about several tragic incidences with runaway cars. One of which occurred in Texas the day after Christmas, where four people lost their lives when their Toyota accelerated off the road and into a pond. Stories and videos of runaway cars are documented all over the internet, which arguably has put pressure on Toyota to respond quickly in hopes of containment.

With such a potentially life threatening defect, it is crucial that anyone who is driving a Toyota on the recall list, get their vehicle services as quickly as possible. The following models were announced to be on recall:

· RAV4 2009-2010 models

· Corolla 2009-2010 models

· Matrix 2009-2010 models

· Avalon 2005-2010 models

· Camry 2007-2010 models

· Highlander 2010 model

· Tundra 2007-2010 models

The “Cash for Clunkers” bill generated such great interest in its first six days that it quickly burned through all of its funding and caught legislators off guard. Its purpose is to get rid of old automobiles that pollute the environment with detrimental chemicals. When the CARS (Car Allowance Rebate System) program, run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), was introduced, it was difficult to know the results. There’s only one discount per person, but family members can cash in with separate clunkers. The program lets the current car owner to acquire $3,500 to $4,500 coupon for swapping in their clunker car for a brand new fuel-efficient vehicle. The current car of the owner should obtain less than 18 miles each gallon when it comes to fuel efficiency in order to qualify.

The fact that the program is still in high demand is not surprising at all. The extreme demand of car buyers and the wish to re-establish income to the auto industry during this setback has in fact resulted in car sales increase . SUVs  and Trucks  have separate rules. For light SUVs, trucks and minivans, the improved MPG must be 2 for a $3500 credit, and for an improvement of 5 MPG, you’ll get a $4500 credit. The new, qualified truck or SUV must have at least 18 MPG.

The NHTSA (the organization which is responsible for the CARS program) is required to take care of any fraud claims reported by the consumers regarding the rebate program. No pre-registration is needed to take advantage of the CARS program. You can call any new car dealer and discuss buying a new car.

General Motors Corporation decided to accept liability for future product defects as one of several concessions the company has made to expedite approval for a quick sale from bankruptcy. GM also said that it would alter the terms of its proposed asset sale to assuage the concerns of over 20 suppliers who objected to specifically the original terms.

GM addresses these and other concerns as part of documents filed in the last week of June 2009 in a New York bankruptcy court. GM has been actively working with officials of Obama administration to smooth over many of the problems that arose when the company filed bankruptcy. Over nine state attorney generals objected to GM’s proposed reorganization because the original terms would have left GM buyers without any protections against product defects under state laws. GM responded by saying that it would continue to honorlemon law claims in California and throughout the nation so that if consumers purchased a defective vehicle, they would be entitled to a replacement vehicle or a refund.

The outcry over the terms of the bankruptcy caused GM and Obama administration officials to rethink the reorganization of the company and reconsider liability for future product liability claims. GM said that the purchaser will assume all product liability claims arising from accidents or other.

GM suggested a new company to be created under the reorganization plan to purchase the company’s best and most economically viable assets, and that the sale would be concluded by August 2009.

A group of about 300 U.S. citizens with pending lawsuits against GM vigorously objected to the terms of the reorganization in response to the reorganization plan. They claim that any wrongful death and injury claims that would be paid from the sale of GM’s less financially viable assets are nearly worthless. This group named the Ad Hoc Committee of Consumer Victims of General Motors said at the bankruptcy court filing that the car manufacturer’s insurance would only cover product liability claims of up to $35 million for each claim.

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.

Japanese automaker Mitsubishi dogged by scandals over its coverups of auto defects has reached a settlement with the family of a man who died in a crash caused by a design flaw.

The agreement was reached with relatives of a 39-year-old driver killed in an accident triggered by a clutch-design defect in a Mitsubishi truck he drove, said Fumio Nishizaki, a spokesman for Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

The truck crashed into a concrete embankment in western Japan after its brakes failed on Oct. 19, 2002.

Nishizaki said he could not disclose terms of the settlement because of an agreement with the victim’s family members.

The Yomiuri newspaper reported that Mitsubishi Motors agreed to pay the family an unidentified amount in damages, apologized, and promised to prevent a recurrence. The family, meanwhile, promised not to file a civil suit against the automaker, the newspaper said citing unnamed people involved in the talks.

“We keenly feel our responsibility for causing a painful accident of this,” Mitsubishi Motors President Hideyasu Tagaya said in a statement released Wednesday.

Tagaya said the automaker will do its utmost to ensure the safety of its vehicles.

Two of four former Mitsubishi Motors officials charged with professional negligence in the same crash also reached settlements with the family members, Nishizaki said.

Earlier this year, the Tokyo-based automaker and a truck affiliate spun off from the company, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp., said they had failed to disclose all the problems with their vehicles in 2000 when public apologies had been offered for previous cover-ups and continued to conceal design problems.

The revelation that the company hadn’t come clean stunned the Japanese public and sent Mitsubishi vehicle sales plummeting.

In the last several months, after another investigation into systematic cover-ups extending back at least 25 years, Mitsubishi Motors has announced more than 40 recalls of its vehicles.

In an opening court session for the professional negligence trial at the Yokohama District Court on Oct. 5, Yuzo Murata, a former executive overseeing truck operations, and Tatsuro Nakagami, the former head of quality control, acknowledged they failed to take appropriate safety measures.

Two other executives - Katsuhiko Kawasoe, the former head of Mitsubishi Motors, and former Mitsubishi Fuso chairman, Takashi Usami - are still contesting professional negligence charges and did not settle with the victim’s family, Nishizaki said.

Two other Mitsubishi Motors officials have been charged with professional negligence in another fatal accident in which a wheel flew off a truck and crushed a pedestrian in January 2002.

The charge of professional negligence resulting in death carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison or fines of 500,000 yen ($4,800 US) upon conviction.

Mitsubishi Motors is about 20 per cent owned by DaimlerChrysler AG of Germany. The automaker spun off its truck division in January 2003.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into law SB 234, the bill that extends protections of the state’s automotive “lemon” law to armed forces personnel stationed in California.
Until now, the law applied only to cars purchased in California.
Military personnel who bought cars in other states and subsequently were transferred to California had no recourse under California law if they had a problem with their vehicles.
Under SB 234, active duty personnel transferred to California are protected by the state’s lemon law even if they purchased their vehicle in another state.

Shares of General Motors yesterday reached levels that nearly doubled their value from half-century lows set earlier this month.

GM shares closed at $14.58 a share, up 26 cents, or 1.82 percent. Shares of GM had traded as high as $16.43, or up almost $1.75 a share, in earlier trading today. Earlier this month, GM’s stock price had fallen to as low as $8.81 a share.

The rise in GM’s stock, seems to have been caused by two factors: Bill Gate’s entry into the automotive business world through his purchase of 5% of AutoNation Inc, the largest dealership group in the United States; and GM’s disclosure that it’s global sales totaled 4.5 million vehicles in the first six months of this year, with rapid growth overseas.

Clearly, the rumors of GM’s demise, or the suggestion of the need to file bankruptcy is over exaggeration. One has to wonder whether GM’s stock has finally hit bottom and is now on the road to recovery.

Toyota is considering shifting production of its efficient Camry to its Indiana truck plant. Toyota sold 51, 291 Camrys last month while Tundra sales slipped 31.5 percent.

The future of the Indiana plant — which produces the Toyota Tundra pickup, Sequoia SUV and Sienna minivan — has been up in the air for several months now. Earlier reports suggest that Toyota would move Tundra production exclusively to its new plant in San Antonio, Texas, with the latest reports indicating Toyota would export vehicles made at its Indiana plant.

The move to produce Camrys at its truck plant would seem to be a smart one for Toyota. Not only would it allowed Toyota to maximize its production capacity, but it would give the Japanese automaker a third U.S. Camry plant at a time when demand for fuel-efficient vehicles is on the rise. We’re pretty sure workers at the Princeton, Indiana plant would also be in favor of Camry production rather than a pink slip.

Toyota has yet to officially confirm the report, but did tell Automotive News that it is “looking at a lot of things to balance production.”

The Toyota Camry has been the best-selling passenger car in the U.S. for 10 of the last 11 years, but could the perennial best-selling car be eyeing the number one overall spot?  Ford’s F-150 pickup truck has held the title of the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for the past 31 years, but a slumping economy and high fuel prices have the F-150’s title in jeopardy.

During the month of April, Toyota’s Camry outsold Chevrolet’s Silverado — which has historically always been the second best-selling vehicle in America. During April, Toyota sold 40,016 Camrys while Chevy could only move 37,231 Silverados — a decrease of 24.7 percent.

However, despite the Camry’s strong April sales, the Silverado still retains the number two spot by a small margin. But if gas prices continue to climb, the Camry might just have enough momentum to knock both pickups off their comfy top spots.