In 1982, California became the first state to pass an automobile “lemon law” which gave owners of defective cars the opportunity to seek a replacement or a refund for a new car that had a defect that could not be repaired in a reasonable amount of time. This law proved so popular that other states soon followed suit. Less than twenty five years later, all fifty states have some sort of lemon law on their books. California may take the lead again in the protection of auto buyers as the state Assembly recently passed a “bill of rights” designed to protect buyers of used cars.
This bill, which has not been signed into law, would protect buyers of used cars from deceptive lending practices, sales of lemon-law buyback vehicles, and vehicles with frame damage. Buyers would also be allowed three days in which to cancel the deal if they changed their mind after the purchase.
The auto warranty is something everyone thinks about when they are purchasing a car, but few of these people realize that they need to think about it after that as well. You go into a dealership, which convinces you to purchase an auto that is perfect for you. What seals the deal, in many cases, is the fact that the auto has an auto warranty on it. You think that they could not or would not offer a warranty on a product that wasn’t up to standards. So, you purchase your car and get your auto warranty.
Regardless of the car, the make or model number, you simply shove that auto warranty into the glove box and call it done. But, what you need to do is to know what is covered on that warranty, what you need to do to get those services, and what you need to do to keep that warranty up to date.
Posted in Vehicles | Tagged auto warranty |
The Internet has provided the public with a useful and convenient tool that makes it easier to do all manner of things than it used to be. One of these things, oddly enough, is the sale of motor vehicles. It seems strange that cars would sell well on the Web, as one would think that buyers would want to “kick the tires” before making a purchase. The success of eBay Motors, AutoTrader and other online sites devoted to the sale of motor vehicles would suggest otherwise, as business at those sites is thriving.
Consumers who wish to purchase a vehicle online should be aware of a popular scam perpetrated by crooks who wish to steal your money – the wire transfer scam. The seller offers a vehicle for sale that he or she doesn’t really have; they often just post a stock photo or one they found somewhere. The sellers often indicate that they are located in Europe, and they insist on a wire transfer, such as Western Union, for payment. Once the buyer sends the money, the seller vanishes, never to be heard from again.
It can be frustrating to have your car break down on the highway. Few people will stop to offer help to disabled drivers. You may not have a cell phone with you, so you’ll have to walk to find help. And even if you do have a phone with you, how likely are you to know the number of a nearby towing service? All of these things combine to make a bad situation worse. A good solution, particularly if you spend a lot of time driving, is to pay for a roadside assistance plan.
A roadside assistance plan is a form of insurance. You pay for the service from a variety of sources; you might even buy it from your car insurance company. The annual fee that generally costs less than the cost of a single tow can be quite a bargain should you be unlucky enough to have a breakdown as the cost of towing a car even a short distance can easily amount to $100 or more. If you live in a rural area where services are not readily available, roadside assistance could save you several hundred dollars on just a single breakdown.
It’s expensive buying a car and it only gets more so as time goes on. Over time, the price of new cars has increased faster than the rate of inflation. This isn’t entirely due to greed on the part of automakers; cars are also more complicated and useful than they used to be. Sure, they were cheaper in the 1960’s, but they didn’t include air conditioning, air bags and video systems. Convenience and safety comes at a price.
With the increase in price comes an increase in the length of time people are taking to pay off their cars. Few people pay cash; most people take out loans and pay over time. The average car loan, which used to be repaid over a period of three years, now averages about six years in duration. That’s a long time to pay for a car, especially if you have no plans to own it for that long.
Although the price of gasoline continues to climb upwards, Americans still love driving recreational vehicles. They are big and bulky, and get poor gas mileage, but the convenience of driving a vehicle that also contains some of the comforts of home is appealing, particularly since an RV will allow you to stay in national parks and other campgrounds. Why stay in a hotel when you can stay by a lake? A recreational vehicle does offer vacation opportunities that other types of transportation, such as sport utility vehicles, do not. But like any other vehicle, an RV can break down, and when it does, the repairs can be expensive. They can be even more expensive if you are unprepared for something that many RV buyers don’t know – the lemon laws of most states do not cover recreational vehicles.
Recreational vehicles are not cheap; the price tags of some of them can exceed one million dollars. But while they are legally motor vehicles, most states exempt them from coverage under the lemon laws. Lemon laws are statutes designed to provide consumers who buy defective motor vehicles with recourse against the manufacturer should the vehicle prove repeatedly unreliable. Given the fact that RVs tend to be rather expensive, one would think that they would be covered under these laws, but in most states, that’s not the case. Why not?
When seeking an extended vehicle warranty for your car, truck, or SUV, you have several options. You can purchase the plan offered by the car dealership, or you can choose a third party provider. You might think that the plans offered are the same, but they’re not. Many times, a third party warranty provider can offer you a better deal than you would find at the dealership. Here are five advantages of buying your extended warranty from a warranty company versus an vehicle dealership.
You’ll save money — many vehicle dealerships offer extended warranty plans at retail prices, which can be quite a bit more than the plans you’ll find with a third party provider. By purchasing your extended vehicle warranty direct from a warranty provider, you’ll cut out the middleman and save money!
Extended car warranty, extended vehicle service agreement, extended service contract, car warranty – they are all the same thing.
A car warranty is like an insurance policy against car repairs. A warranty is purchased prior to vehicle issues and used if and only if repairs are needed to the vehicle.
With the price of a new car getting higher and higher each year, many buyers choose to buy used cars instead. The price of a new car can easily equal a year’s pay for many people, so buying a used car makes sense. But there are risks associated with buying a pre-owned vehicle. What if is defective? What if it is a lemon law buyback? Once should always be a bit suspicious of a used vehicle. After all, if it is a great buy, then why did the original owner choose to part with it?
To resolve some of these issues, as well as to compete with volume dealers of used cars such as Carmax, the major auto manufacturers have introduced the concept of a “certified used car.” These cars are inspected for problems, repaired if necessary, and offered for sale with a warranty that is better than the one typically offered with sales of used cars. In exchange for this added peace of mind, the buyer pays a higher price than he or she otherwise might.
Buying a new automobile is usually a bid decision for most people, and it involves a lot of time, research and most of all, money. If you are going to be paying for something for five years or more, you will generally take your time, do your research, and make sure that you are spending your money wisely on a vehicle that will last for years. Unfortunately, some new cars, like all manufactured products, do not perform as they should and are defective in some way. For reasons lost to antiquity, defective cars are known as “lemons.”
California became the first state to enact legislation that provided recourse to purchasers of defective vehicles in 1982; since then, every state has enacted similar legislation. Consumers all over the country may now seek either a replacement vehicle or a refund should they find themselves the owner of a defective automobile.Even though legislation exists to protect you if you should find yourself the owner of a lemon, most people are not familiar with their state’s lemon law. Is it necessary to file a lawsuit? Do you need a lawyer? Can you go through the process yourself?
Millions of American car owners need the protection and coverage of an auto warranty for their automobile, and yet don’t research the intricacies of their contracts and end up feeling the pain of a less than comprehensive guarantee just when the inevitable repairs start piling up. It isn’t exactly a coincidence that the breakdowns on your car will start to occur as soon as your original factory warranty has run its course, so a comprehensive extended warranty for your vehicle is essential if you don’t want to pay high-priced bill after high-priced bill for every little thing that goes wrong.
When you get an extended warranty for you car, you will have not only the peace of mind of knowing that should there be any malfunction it can be summarily repaired, but also that you can take it in to the repair shop of your choice and have the cost of the claim covered by the company with whom you drafted the contract. The toll that both everyday or more strenuous driving can take on your automobile make it a inevitable truth that engine parts will wear down, heat will cause damage, and the once functioning mechanical components will breakdown. Having a comprehensive auto warranty will appease your worried mind not only during that frustrating time when your vehicle is not in working order, but more importantly, before and after it has been repaired, so that your brain can concentrate on thinking about more important things than whether you can afford to have your car out of commission.
Buying a car or truck is an expensive proposition. With new cars often costing more than $20,000 and car loans averaging nearly six years in duration, it only stands to reason that consumers expect those vehicles to work reliably when they buy them. Sometimes they do not, and for those cases, each of the fifty states has passed an auto lemon law. Those laws were passed to simplify the process by which a consumer with a habitually defective vehicle could seek relief in the form of either a replacement vehicle or a refund of the purchase price. Understandably, dealers and manufacturers are often reluctant to hand over the money or a new car, and frequently offer a variety of excuses for failing to do so.
Here are some of the more common excuses offered by dealers when presented with a defective automobile:
Are you considering an extended new car warranty or used car warranty? Are you uncertain of the value of purchasing such a warranty?
It is important to understand that an extended automobile warranty gives protection beyond the dealership warranty. On top of other features and benefits, an extended warranty allows you the flexibility to have your vehicle repaired at any licensed service center in your area.
After spending most of the summer above $3 per gallon throughout most of the United States, gasoline prices appear to be dropping a bit. That may or may not be temporary; the price of crude oil is affected by many factors, and all of them are volatile. This much is certain, however – gasoline at a dollar a gallon is gone forever. From now on, American consumers are going to have to adjust to spending a lot more money on gasoline than they are accustomed to spending.
Spending more dollars per gallon than one is used to does not mean that buying gas needs to drain your bank account. There are numerous ways to save money on gas. Some are obvious; others are less so. Each of them saves a little bit and has a cumulative affect of keeping your bank balance a bit healthier.
A lot of people like owning and driving cars, but no one likes to repair them or pay to have them repaired. But cars are like anything else; if you use them, they eventually need attention. Today’s vehicles are far more complicated than the cars of a generation ago, so fewer and fewer consumers are able to do their own repairs. That means taking it to a professional mechanic when something goes wrong, and choosing a bad one can cost you a fortune.
While the majority of auto mechanics are honest people, there are more than a few that have been known to take advantage of consumers by engaging in a number of unethical practices: