Resale of 'Lemons' as New Cars Criticized

"SACRAMENTO – New cars that normally would be classified as 'lemons' are being resold to unsuspecting buyers the Assembly Consumer Protection Committee heard from disgruntled car buyers who complained about buying nearly new cars from dealers only to find out later, after a run of constant troubles ranging from squeaky doors to bad brakes, that the vehicles had a history of problems.

A woman told the committee that she bought a 1989 Chevrolet Suburban from a Santa Rose dealer and that its brakes failed while pulling a 6,000-pound trailer down a mountainous Lake Tahoe road. Gayle Pena told the committee that she was led to believe that she was buying a like-new vehicle that had been driven by an executive.

She later found out that the vehicle had been repurchased from the original owner by the dealer after it had been in the shop at least 20 times for brake problems that could not be fixed.

'The dealer was willing to kill us for $22,000 put us in a casket for the sake of a sale,' said Pena, who now lives out of state."

– Los Angeles Times, October 28, 1994

 

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