LETTERS: THE Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) urges the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry to look into laws related to the sale and purchase of used and new vehicles.
Although the ministry has announced that it was looking into laws related to the sale and purchase of used vehicles, we call on the ministry to extend the Lemon Law to new cars as well.
New cars can be lemons too, and a recent case of a car breaking down eight hours after purchase is one example.
A Lemon Law is a remedy for purchasers of consumer products, particularly motorised vehicles, that repeatedly fail to meet the standards of quality and performance.
Lemon Law strengthens the Consumer Protection Act (CPA). It should be introduced to provide consumers having lemons (nice to see but sour and tart to taste) an avenue for legal redress.
This law requires defective cars to be repaired or replaced. Consumers may request a price reduction or get a refund. The United States, Singapore, South Korea, China and the Philippines have implemented the Lemon Law.
In most cases, the defects found in new cars leave car owners with no option but to go for car repairs at authorised car workshops.
Owners of lemons costing more than RM50,000 cannot file their claim for exchange or refund at the Tribunal for Consumer Claims Malaysia.
They have take the car company to court, incurring an expensive and time-consuming legal process.
The CAP calls on the government to introduce the Lemon Law for all vehicles regardless of price.
We suggest that it is reasonable that a seriously defective car be repaired in a maximum of a month, and three attempts are reasonable for the service centre to repair the same defect before the Lemon Law applies.
Secondhand vehicles to be sold must first be inspected by Puspakom and the Road Transport Department to ensure that they are in reasonably good condition before any sale transaction takes place.
We have received complaints that secondhand cars started to give mechanical problems soon after the purchase, and occasionally, the cars are kereta potong (cars that use cannibalised parts from scrap cars), or that their car mileage meter have been tampered with to show lower readings.
With the Lemon Law in Singapore, consumers can:
MAKE a claim for a defective product (also known as lemons) bought within six months;
EXPECT sellers of the defective product to repair, replace, refund or reduce the price of the defective product (subject to certain conditions);
GET the defective product repaired within a reasonable time at the seller's cost; and,
ASK for a price reduction while keeping the product or return the product for a refund if the seller fails to repair it.
Thus, we reiterate that the government should introduce the Lemon Law to ensure that car manufacturers and dealers are held responsible for their defective products and to repair the vehicle satisfactorily as required by the law.
The law should also be applied to used vehicles and new ones.
The number of defective new vehicles that Malaysians are holding on with no avenue for legal redress is worrying.
Old cars costing less than RM50,000 can at least for now seek legal redress from the tribunal.
MOHIDEEN ABDUL KADER
President
Consumers Association of Penang
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times