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Critical Used Car information that you should
obtain before buying a pre-owned automobile:
* Vehicle
Description - Verify critical information associated with the
vehicle. Attributes such as: year, make, model, body style, engine
type and country of manufacture are verified.
* Title Check - Check for reported damage such as, fire damage,
hail damage, grey market, lien, lemon/manufacturer buyback, odometer
discrepancy, rebuilt/rebuildable, salvage/junk, water damage.
* Problem Check - VIN - Make - Model - Year info will cross
check information collected from independent sources, including NHTSA
crash test vehicle, failed emission/safety inspection, frame damage,
insurance loss, major damage incident, odometer discrepancy from
auction data, salvage auction and theft.
* Odometer Check - This report section compares all mileage
readings from the state or other independent sources. It also flags
any odometer rollback or rollover.
* Vehicle Usage - This report section verifies past vehicle
usage, including dealer plates, driver education, fleet, lease, livery
use, government use, police use, rental and taxi use.
* Full History - Get the complete vehicle history in
chronological order. Any problem or discrepancy event is highlighted
for alert.
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Know
your rights!
Can
an ordinary citizen protect himself from being victimized?
You
bet he can!
There are three distinct sets of laws that
are applicable to defective vehicles and products.
STATE
WARRANTY RIGHTS ACTS (LEMON LAWS)
Lemon laws are now
in effect in all but 2 states. Lemon Laws differ from state to state,
but do follow basic guidelines.
1. The STATE
WARRANTY RIGHTS ACTS
define what a lemon car is and require that the manufacturer, not
the dealer, corrects the defects. If a number of attempts have been
made to repair a defect that significantly impairs the use, value or
safety of a car and the car continues to have this defect, the car
is than considered to be a "Lemon."
2. Most statutes set up a warranty rights period of either 12 to 24
months or 12,000 to 24,000 miles. The defects must occur sometime during this period.
3. Many of the state lemon laws contain specific guidelines as to
what constitutes a sufficient number of attempts to repair, and
whether these attempts entitle you, the consumer, to a refund or
replacement. These are:
a. If the
defect is a serious safety defect involving brakes and/or steering,
the manufacturer is granted one attempt to repair.
b. If there is a safety defect that is not
considered a serious safety defect, the manufacturer has two
attempts to repair.
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c. For any other defect, the
manufacturer is usually given three or four chances to repair the
same defect.
d. If at any time the vehicle is in the
shop for a cumulative total of 30 days in a one year period, with at
least one of those days occurring in the first 12,000 miles.
If any one of these 4 guidelines can
be satisfied, the consumer is usually given the right to require
repurchase or replacement of his/her vehicle.
4. Most lemon laws do allow an offset
for use of the vehicle by the consumer. Oftentimes, a reduction in
the consumer's purchase price is used in relation to the number of
miles you had put on the car. One lemon law spells out the reduction
in refund for use as follows:
(miles at time of
refund X purchase price)/120,000
The consumer can often argue that
he/she should not be charged for miles that were put on the vehicle
after the first try to repair the defect. For example, what if you
the allow a dealer many attempts to repair a defect over a period of
several thousand miles? Should the manufacturer be allowed to reduce
your refund for the period of time he was unsuccessful in fixing the
defect? Our answer is no. The above formula should be used to
compute the mileage at the time of the repair attempt. This can
often make a difference of several hundred dollars to you the
consumer.
Don't
settle for a lemon!
Has
your dream car been:
- Stolen
or salvaged?
- In
a flood or hail storm?
- In
an accident or fire?
- Rebuilt?
- A
victim of potential odometer roll back?
- Used
as a rental or fleet vehicle?
- A
taxi or police car?
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