California Lemon Law Lawyer Blog

A bill in the California Legislature would ban the sale of cars and trucks that were declared total loss vehicles due to salt water damage. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005 caused severe damage to over 600,000 vehicles; about half of these vehicles will be sold somewhere in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, salt water adversely affects the electronics that control various components in vehicles such as the air bags and is highly corrosive. Some cars even become repositories of toxic materials after being hit by the salt water.

Certain unscrupulous professional detailers conceal salt water damage by, among other thingks, steam-cleaning the engine and re-blackening rubber seals to hide salt marks.

The problem is that some car dealers are buying these vehicles and reselling them with no disclosure of the cars’ histories.

Passage of Senate Bill 498 would go a long way towards protecting buyers from unwittingly buying salt-damaged cars and trucks. The bill has been approved by Senate Committees as of this date. The author of the bill is State Senator Jenny Oropeza, who is from Carson, CA. If you wish to express your support for the bill call or write your own state Senator and Assemblyperson. Addresses are available at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html.

GM sold its 2004 and 2005 Pontiac GTO cars with 17" wheels and 245 mm tires. Unfortunately, the tires are too wide causing them to sometimes graze the front struts which causes premature and uneven tire wear and even tire failure. On May 10, 2007, KABOB filed a class action seeking a court order forcing GM to notify GTO owners of this problem and compensation for the cost of new, narrower tires.

The GTO cars were manufactured by an Australian company and were designed for use with the narrower tires. Inexplicably, GM equipped the cars with the too-wide tires. The federal safety agency has received numerous complaints about tire wear and failure on these cars and has begun asking GM questions. A reporter at Channel 5 in Cleveland ran stories showing the tire problem on these cars, http://www.newsnet5.com/news/11003693/detail.html.