Comments on: Bought a lemon car? Here’s who you should call

By: amir435

amir435 — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:47:33 +0000

I bought a car last year, was told its a Canadian car, found out later its not. Its an American car. am i protected against such fraud?

By: TheRealMeatloaf

TheRealMeatloaf — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 18:25:25 +0000

@peter kanellos; your comment that OMVIC are useless because they are subsidized by the dealers is akin to saying the police force are useless because they are subsidized by the tax-paying citizens they routinely arrest and incarcerate or the CRA are subsidized by the same taxpayers they investigate and audit. OMVIC have a well defined fee structure for new salesperson registrations, salesperson transfers from one dealership to another, license renewals (for salespeople and dealerships alike) as well as a “transaction fee” of $5 for every vehicle retailed to a consumer. With Ontario dealers retailing 627,000 new cars (and likely a similar number of pre-owned vehicles) that amounts to “transaction fees” in excess of $6.7 million annually, not counting licensing fees and hefty fines they levy against dealers that break any of the rules set out in the Motor Vehicle Dealers Act (the law governing all Ontario retail vehicle dealers). On top of that, all dealers must contribute to the Motor Vehicle Dealers Compensation Fund to assist people who have been wronged by dealers that file for bankruptcy, go out of business or otherwise can’t come up with the cash to assist their troubled clients on their own.

By: TheRealMeatloaf

TheRealMeatloaf — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 18:18:04 +0000

Furthermore, if you’re claiming they buy back “over 100,000″ vehicles annually in the United States, I’ve seen data that suggests they sell upwards of 18.7 million vehicles annually (figures from 2012CY). That would make your 100,000 figure represent approximately half a percent. That’s an extremely far cry from Mr. Lemon-Aid’s figure of 10% which would necessitate the buy-back of 1,879,443 vehicles annually in the United States alone. Don’t you think people would notice those kind of numbers?

By: TheRealMeatloaf

TheRealMeatloaf — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 18:12:05 +0000

@Gardiner Westbound; I’ve been working for franchise dealerships for about a decade now and worked in a management role for upwards of 6 years of that time. I can’t say as if I’ve seen even so much as 1% of cars leaving our doors that had any kind of on-going, long term problems. You have to keep Mr. Edmunston’s objective in mind – by perpetuating these myths, he sells more books. Also keep in mind this is the gentleman who supports the myth that freight charges on new cars is a scam. Obviously he thinks international shipping logistics is a charitable organization or he has no grasp on the costs of moving 2000lbs of metal from one continent to another, and/or across a country as vast as Canada.

By: Gardiner Westbound

Gardiner Westbound — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:20:55 +0000

A “lemon” is legally defined as a car with a significant defect that remains uncorrected after a reasonable number of repair attempts. Lemon-Aid author Phil Edmonston estimates 10 percent of new cars are lemons.

All 50 U.S. states have strong lemon laws that force manufacturers to buy back defective cars, more than 100,000 annually, but not Ontario. The Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council (OMVIC), responsible for auto sales consumer protection, is fatuously on record that, “There is no such thing in Ontario.” Are you frickin’ kidding me?

By: peter kanellos

peter kanellos — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:18:38 +0000

I’m sorry to break your bubble….they are useless because they are subsidized or affiliated with all the car companies.

We ahave had an ongoing manufacturing issue with our car that we bought brand new and they were no help at all, they acted like a lap dog for the the manufacturers.

Going to small claims court in March, thats how good a service they provided.