Cleveland Plain Dealer
May 30, 1999; by Christopher Jensen
"In 1979, when a car dealer gave Rosemary Shahan a hard time about getting her car fixed, he could not have imagined the consequences for the auto industry...Not only did Shahan picket his dealership for five months, but the North Canton native then spent the next 20 years as a consumer advocate...She now heads to California-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety... she recently played an important role in awakening less-than-alert Ohio legislators and preventing the auto industry from planting what she saw as a boobytrap in Ohio's lemon law...
Rosemary Shahan with fellow Buckeye Richard Cordray, former Attorney General of Ohio, who is serving as the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
'She was really the consumer watchdog...the initial alert,' said Amy Simpson, the state director for the Ohio Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). "A lot of people, when they looked at the legislation, they looked at the summary, they looked at the title and they looked at the sponsors. Noe of those things raised any red flags. Rosemary took the time to do some analysis and then had the tenacity to contact and follow up with people. From our perspective, she was the instigator in alerting us,' Simpson said.
Suddenly, consumer groups such as Ohio PIRG, the Ralph-Nader founded Center for Auto Safety and the Consumer Federation of America were on the attack over the last-chance-for-repair notification.
The notification requirement would drastically impact how or if consumers get relief in Ohio, according to Phil Nowicki, a nationally known lemon-law consultant from Tallahassee, who ran Florida's [lemon law] program....
Thanks to Shahan's calls, the same bill that breezed through the House was soon being looked at very closely in the Senate, where the senators ultimately agreed that the last-chance notification would hurt consumers. The Senate approved an amendment to remove the last-chance notification from the bill, angering auto industry lobbyists. On May 19, the House considered the bill and agreed that the Senate had been right to change it. It is now being considered by Ohio Gov. Bob Taft."
Note: Governor Taft signed the bill into law, without the harmful provision that would have allowed auto manufacturers to delay making repairs to seriously defective lemon cars indefinitely.
A yearlong celebration of 40 people who have made extraordinary efforts to improve others' financial well-being.
May 2012
"A Driving Force for Lemon Laws"
Rosemary Shahan, President and Founder of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety Why she's a hero: Shahan, 62, has spent three decades fighting on drivers' behalf for more effective repairs, improved safety, and fairer financing.
Read more here: money.cnn.com/galleries/2012/pf/1205/gallery.consumers-customer-service.moneymag
Auto safety activist Rosemary Shahan turns lemons into legislation
April 1, 2012; by Ken Bensinger
"Shahan is the founder and president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS). The Sacramento organization has been the driver of some of the most important advances in auto-related safety and financial protection regulation on the books today.
Shahan, 62, championed the nation's first lemon law in California, which has since been copied in every state. She was a major force behind the federal air bag mandate and laws protecting military service members from abusive car loans. And she's not finished."
Read more here: articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/01/business/la-fi-himi-shahan-20120401
"In 1979, when a car dealer gave Rosemary Shahan a hard time about getting her car fixed, he could not have imagined the consequences for the auto industry. Not only did Shahan picket his dealership for five months, but the North Canton, Ohio native then spent the next 20 years as a consumer advocate -- lobbying, cajoling, complaining, and generally causing trouble for the auto industry.
She now heads the California-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, which is based in Sacramento. But by phone and fax, she recently played an important role in awakening less-than-alert Ohio legislators and preventing the auto industry from planting what she saw as a boobytrap in Ohio's lemon law....In Ohio, Shahan was concerned about proposed changes to the lemon law, which was adopted in 1987. It gives consumers the right to force automakers to take back defective vehicles." -- "The 'nuisance' who helped win Ohio's lemon-law fight," Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 30, 1999.
One manufacturer testified that his firm might take 30 tries to have a single problem fixed. The new law says that if a substantial defect isn't remedied after 4 repair attempts or 30 days out of service, the owner is entitled to a refund or replacement." -- "After 3 1/2 years of bitter struggle, the lemon law finds sweet success," The Daily Californian, July 10, 1982
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