Three More States Consider Car Buyer's Bill of Rights Versions

By Richard Greene, AR NewsMagazine Editor
May 08, 2007

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DENVER — With the one-year enactment anniversary approaching for the California Car Buyer's Bill of Rights, attorney Rob Cohen now has Minnesota, Massachusetts and Illinois on his radar screen.

And it's Illinois that has Cohen most on edge, to the point of recommending that Illinois auto dealers gear up to contact their state legislators to defeat the Used Vehicle Buyer Protection Act that was introduced this past February.

Cohen was a featured speaker at the Used Car Manager Conference recently held in Denver and sponsored by the Auto Remarketing Forum Series.

According to Cohen, president of Auto Advisory Services based in Tustin, Calif., Minnesota's Senate passed a bill on March 29 that has language "nearly identical" to the California piece of legislation that went into effect July 1, 2006. It must still be approved by the state House, Cohen pointed out.

Massachusetts first introduced its own version of the Car Buyer's Bill of Rights back in April 2005, but the legislation process has languished somewhat since then, Cohen said. Prospects of passage have waned in that state, but the language in the Massachusetts bill is "very similar" to California, he added.

"The bill in Minnesota appears to have some legs to it in that it has some legislative support. What the governor's office will do with it, I'm not sure at this point. The chances of the Massachusetts bill going through are pretty slim, however, because it doesn't seem to have the support in the legislature," Cohen explained.

Cohen said, however, that the versions now making their way through the legislatures in Minnesota and Massachusetts do not alarm him. Though it's not the most "ideal" law and there are a few provisions that do trouble him still, especially surrounding the use of the term "certified."

Cohen did characterize the California Car Buyer's Bill of Rights as a "workable" piece of legislation. Since the final bill signed into law in California was a compromise version of what was originally introduced, Cohen said he believes dealers in Minnesota and Massachusetts should not be overly anxious at this juncture.

Cohen was not so generous when it came to describing the Used Vehicle Buyer Protection Act introduced in Illinois in February.

"The Illinois legislation is not a Car Buyer's Bill of Rights. It is a used-vehicle buyer protection act. And as it is presently written, my greatest concern is that the language in that statute is absolutely and completely unworkable," Cohen told Auto Remarketing in an interview.

According to Cohen, the Illinois Used Vehicle Buyer Protection Act prohibits dealers from selling or leasing a used vehicle unless they disclose to the consumer "any mechanical or technical defects or problem history of that particular make, model and year of that vehicle."

At the same time, Cohen added, this statute would "force dealers to offer warranties on used vehicles, 30 to 90 days, or 1,000 to 4,000 miles, based upon mileage of the vehicle at the time of sale."

"I don't think dealers will have any idea how they are supposed to comply with such vague language," Cohen said. "I can't imagine that's going to find its way through a judiciary committee just because it's so vague.

"It almost imposes clairvoyance in that dealers are supposed to know all problems associated with a particular vehicle," he explained. "I know no other law in the country that has such a broad-sweeping disclosure requirement, and there's no database in the world that has that type of information.

"At the same time, I don't think that dealers should have to be forced to put a warranty on the sale of every used vehicle. That could eventually limit the number of vehicles that are available from reputable dealers, and it will most certainly raise the cost of those that are," Cohen added. "There will be consumers who will be pushed out the market because they cannot afford these used vehicles that now cost more.

"So, the Illinois law as written does not help consumers and only invites litigation detrimental to dealers. But, I believe it's highly unlikely that this statute is actually going to pass," he continued.

However, Cohen did say that dealers in Illinois should not become overconfident or worse yet, apathetic. Instead, just as California dealers became active in successfully lobbying their state legislators to get a final bill that was more favorable to dealerships, Cohen said dealers in Illinois should start contacting their state legislators.

"Dealers need to call their state representatives and senators and lobby them directly, saying that this used-vehicle buyer protection act will not work," Cohen pointed out.

"From a legal standpoint, I'm remaining pretty calm at this point in time, because all three of these bills have not passed yet, and the closest one to passing in Minnesota is so similar to California, I'm not too concerned about it because again the California version enacted in July is workable.

"But if the current version of the Illinois Used Vehicle Buyer Protection Act gets closer to passing, then I think it's time to sweat bullets," Cohen concluded. "Right now, it's a little too early to tell, but dealers should still act and start their lobbying efforts. That's in their best interest."

Used Car Manager