Gov't urged to Introduce 'lemon law' to protect car buyers

A consumer group is urging the government to implement a “lemon law” to hold automakers responsible for defective projects and compel them to repair vehicles in accordance with the law. The call to introduce this was made by the Penang Consumers’ Association (CAP), which said that doing so will provide vehicle buyers who end up with defective vehicles with an avenue for redress, The Malay Mail reports.

CAP president SM Mohamed Idris said that a lemon law would require defective cars to be repaired or replaced, and a consumer may request for a reduction in price or get a refund. “Lemon law strengthens the consumer protection act. It should be introduced to provide consumers holding onto lemons — nice to see but sour to taste — an avenue of legal redress,” he said via a statement.

He added that the association suggests that it would be reasonable that a maximum of a month be given for a seriously defective car to be repaired, and three attempts reasonable for the service centre to repair the same defect before the lemon law applies.

“We need the lemon law to ensure that car manufacturers repair their defective products satisfactorily as required by law,” he said, adding that the number of defective new cars that Malaysians are holding on with no avenue for legal redress is worrying.

Citing Singapore’s lemon law, which was incorporated into Singapore’s Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act 2004, he said Malaysia can do the same for its Consumer Protection Act 1999.

Singapore’s lemon law allows consumers to make a claim for defective products purchased within six months. Sellers of defective product have to repair, replace, refund or reduce the price of the defective product, and the defective product must be repaired or replaced within a reasonable time. Consumers can ask for a price reduction or return the product for a refund if seller fails to repair the product.

Such a call has been made in the past, but nothing came out of it. What do you think of the idea? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

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