Consumers now have solid protections if their vehicle turns out to be a dud.
The province of Quebec, Canada has just passed new Lemon Law legislation that makes its consumer protection arguably the best in all of North America.
Thanks to these new laws, any vehicle that has experienced three unsuccessful repair attempts to a problem that substantially impairs the value, use, or safety of the vehicle in three years or 60,000 km (37,000 miles) has a right to apply to have the sale canceled, the price reduced, or the vehicle repurchased by the automaker.
This is more protective than similar laws in the US. In Pennsylvania for example, consumers are only protected under the law if the first problem occurs within 12 months of ownership or 12,000 miles, then the automaker has three attempts to fix it. California’s law is a little vaguer, simply asking for a “reasonable” number of attempts to fix a problem and failing to do so under the car’s original warranty.
CarBuzz According to the Canadian publication Driving these new laws are the first of their kind passed in the country and finally transfer the burden of proof that a vehicle is defective from the consumer to the automaker. Now whether they’re buying a $50k Jeep Wrangler or a $25k Hyundai Elantra they have much improved peace of mind in case things go wrong.
This new law was passed as part of a greater package to protect consumers from planned obsolescence and promote the “durability, repairability, and maintenance of goods.”
The main law takes all of the guesswork out of what is a frustrating scenario for many consumers, and there are additional ways the law can deem a vehicle a lemon too. The first is if a vehicle is plagued by a single defect that cannot be fixed three times under the car’s base warranty or if it’s affected by multiple different issues and failed to be fixed 12 times under the base warranty.
Additionally, any car that’s been attempted to be repaired “once or twice” under the base warranty and kept at the dealer for more than 30 days (not including parts shortages) falls under the category. Finally, any defect that essentially ruins the vehicle or makes it unable to be used in the intended way can cause it to receive the dreaded designation.
In the past, Canada has actually required that consumers hire a technician to prove the vehicle is defective to get any sort of restitution from the manufacturer. But now the manufacturer will foot the bill, and once a car is deemed a lemon, it can only be resold designated as one. This is similar to cars in the US that receive a salvage title if they’ve been in a major accident.
Quebec Canadians can now hold automakers accountable, and we imagine lawmakers in other provinces will start looking into doing similar things. Perhaps a wave of consumer protection up north will inspire states here in the US to enact better laws for consumers too, or the Feds to enact sweeping legislation themselves.
